Abstract
After a spring frost occurred in second half of March 2008, with temperatures below 0°C for 8 days consecutively and an absolute minimum of -5.5°C, a lot of observations have been made on the sweet cherry flowers damages. In three different orchards “Italian palmetta” trained on grassing ground soil, the percentage of the flowers killed by frost, was detected and recorded considering the different genotypes and flowers height from the ground. Furthermore, in one orchard only it was possible to find relationship between flowering stage and frost damage. The results clearly confirm our previous works about the highest mortality of the flower in the upper part ( > 1.50 m) of the canopy and in the full bloom open flowers. So, in this area, the easiness of agronomic operations, like pruning and, especially, fruit harvest, due to the crown proximity to the ground, is cancelled by the frequency of spring frost.
Highlights
In the Piacenza district, the cherry cultivation was made in a traditional way with big dimension trees and crowns over 3–4 meters from the ground
The occurrence of the spring frost during sweet cherry flowering in this area, gave our Institute the opportunity to check the effect of this spring frost
In the last 10–15 years, some sweet cherry growers of the Piacenza district used to insure their orchard against climatic adversity like winter and spring frost, and hail
Summary
In the Piacenza district, the cherry cultivation was made in a traditional way with big dimension trees and crowns over 3–4 meters from the ground. In the cherry growing area of Piacenza district, in the last 25 years of 20th century, the plants are “Italian palmetta” trained to facilitate the cultural practices especially harvest. The occurrence of the spring frost during sweet cherry flowering in this area, gave our Institute the opportunity to check the effect of this spring frost. These events happened in 1995 (Roversi, Ughini, 1995), in 2002 (Roversi, Rossi, 2003 a) and 2003 (Roversi, Rossi, 2003 b). In the last 10–15 years, some sweet cherry growers of the Piacenza district used to insure their orchard against climatic adversity like winter and spring frost, and hail. The insurance companies as well as the growers don’t well know the sensitivity of different sweet cherry varieties to these adversities
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