Abstract
Defoliation (DF) on peach (Prunus persica L.) and Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.) trees caused by a hailstorm in 2017, year 1, was investigated for its effects on growth and fruit yield in South Korea over four years, comparing with recovery effects of the DF trees treated with repeated immediate pruning (IP) right after the storm. Treatments included 0–10, 10–40, 40–70, and 70–100% of DF trees, with 0–10, 10–40, 40–70, and 70–100% of DF + IP trees. The hailstorms increased the damages to shoots for peaches and to shoots and scaffold for Japanese apricot trees in year 1, with fruit yield reduced more than 80% observed on 10–100 DF of both fruit species. The IP treatment increased the number of new shoots in years 2–4 but reduced shoot length and diameter of peach and Japanese apricot trees. Tree canopy in years 2–4 was reduced on 40–100 DF of peach trees and on 70–100 of DF and DF + IP of Japanese apricot trees. The 40–100 DF Japanese apricot trees resulted in a fruit yield index of less than 90% for years 2–4, which was observed on 40–100 DF+IP trees only in year 2 due to balanced tree vegetative and reproductive growth.
Highlights
White-fleshed peach (Prunus persica L.) fruits contain less acidity, taste sweeter, and have a unique flavor, which generated the highest net profit margin at 8.3% from the years 1980 to 2018 amongst the 17 primary fruit and vegetable crops in South Korea [1]
This area is subjected to late freezes accompanied by hailstorms early in the growing season as peach and Japanese apricot are some of the least cold-resistant stone fruits [2,3,4,5,6] as well as frost-yuzu trees [7]
The whole number of fruits and fresh weight (FW) of each fruit species were measured to calculate the fruit yield index as the ratio of each 10–40, 40–70, 70–100 of DF or DF + immediate pruning (IP) trees divided by fruit yield of 0–10% of defoliation (0–10 DF) or DF + IP trees, respectively
Summary
White-fleshed peach (Prunus persica L.) fruits contain less acidity, taste sweeter, and have a unique flavor, which generated the highest net profit margin at 8.3% from the years 1980 to 2018 amongst the 17 primary fruit and vegetable crops in South Korea [1]. Korea despite temperature rising from climate change [3,4] This area is subjected to late freezes accompanied by hailstorms early in the growing season as peach and Japanese apricot are some of the least cold-resistant stone fruits [2,3,4,5,6] as well as frost-yuzu trees [7]. Hailstones are referred to as solid precipitation with a diameter of 5.0 mm or greater and irregular shapes forming from the freezing of supercooled liquid water in strong updraft winds [8] This created considerable impacts on early flowering fruit species, such as stone fruits, and they are mostly harvested between June and August [4,6]. Peach fruits were harvested between 20–28 July from 2017 to 2020, and between 2–10 June for Japanese apricot fruits
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