Phenotypic Variation of Length of Bud Dormancy in Apple Cultivars and Related Malus Species

Abstract

The chilling requirements (CR) to break bud dormancy in a broad range of apple cultivars (Malus ×domestica Borkh.) and related Malus spp. were assessed by periodic sampling and forcing of field-grown shoots as a function of chill unit (CU) accumulation and/or by the total growing degree hours (GDH) accumulated from leaf fall until the time of budbreak under a simulated subtropical winter. The mean number of CU required to break dormancy of field overwintered shoots varied between 218 ± 113 for `Anna' and 1516 ± 113 for `Wright #1'. However, most genotypes had CR between 800 and 1200 CU. Much wider variation for the length of bud dormancy was observed in plants growing under simulated subtropic winter conditions. Genotypes that had shown the lowest CR values under Geneva, N.Y., winters generally had the highest year-to-year variation in CR estimates. Cultivar bud CR values obtained under cold winters are related to field-observed CR estimates in a subtropical environment, but absolute values may differ markedly. Furthermore, several genotypes that show reasonable adaptation to the subtropics have similar or higher CR than apple cultivars with standard CR under Geneva conditions. In addition, enough CU accumulated under the simulated subtropic winters to break dormancy of standard apple cultivars. However, complete dormancy removal was observed only in cultivars well-adapted to a subtropical environment. This result indicates that in addition to CU accumulation, there are important interactions among cultivars and environmental factors that are responsible for terminating bud dormancy. Several cultivars and wild species have shown resistance to delayed foliation. Among the species, M. brevipes, M. rockii, M. spectabilis, and M. turesii are more tolerant than M. baccata and its hybrids, which are recognized for their adaptation to the subtropic environment.