Evaluation of chilling requirement in peach through grafted twigs

Abstract

The methodologies used for chilling requirement evaluation have limitations in relation to its applicability. The aim of this work was to evaluate the chilling requirement of six peach varieties ('Rei da Conserva', 'Setembrino', 'Relíquia', 'Convênio', 'Campinas-1' and 'Biuti'), using one-year-old twigs grafted in the fall. The work was carried out in the Department of Plant Science, at the Federal University of Viçosa (MG), Brazil. The experiment was designed as completely randomized, with five replications, and one grafted plant per plot. According to the results, the chilling requirements for peachs cv. 'Rei da Conserva', 'Relíquia', 'Setembrino', 'Campinas-1', 'Convênio' and 'Biuti' were around 200, 150, 150, 50, 400 and 150 chilling units, respectively. The grafted twigs methodology was efficient for evaluation of peach chilling requirement.

adaptation; chilling requirement; dormancy; Prunus persica