BIOMETRICAL INDICATORS OF FRESH FRUITS OF BULGARIAN AND INTRODUCED PLUM CULTIVARS OF PRUNUS DOMESTICA L.

Nikolina Marinova, Darina Ivanova, Silvena Todorova, Stela Dimkova

Abstract: The study was conducted in the period of 2014 – 2015 in the collection plantation at the Experimental Station of Dryanovo, Bulgaria. The object of study was fresh fruits of Bulgarian plum cultivars – ‘Gabrovska’, ‘Gulyaeva’, ‘Strinava’, ‘Balvanska slava’ and the introduced cultivars – ‘Opal’, ‘Ontario’, ‘Hramova renkloda’, ‘Althan’s Gage’, ‘Čačanska lepotica’. ‘Stanley’ was used as a standart cultivar. The following indicators were observed: fruit weight (g), stone weight (g), stone percentage in relation to fruit weight; fruit size – fruit lenght, fruit width and fruit thickness (mm); arithmetic mean diameter (mm); geometric mean diameter (mm); surface area (cm2); dry matter content (%). ‘Balvanska slava’ had the highest fruit weight – 37.24 g and ‘Opal‘ had the lowest – 20.54 g ‘Opal’ had the lowest percentage of fruit stone in relation to fruit weight – 2.82%, and the highest value was for ‚Stanley‘ cultivar – 4.91%. Fruit height was from 33.26 mm for ‘Opal’ to 47.80 mm for ‘Balvanska slava‘. The largest width was found in ‘Althan’s Gage’ fruits – 41.02 mm, and the smallest width for ‘Opal’ – 30.40 mm. The fruit thickness was the largest again for ‘Althan’s Gage’ – 40.80 mm and the smallest thickness was for ‘Opal’ – 30.46 mm. It was found that dry matter content was the highest for ‚Gulyaeva‘ cultivar – 21.94%, followed by ‘Strinava‘ cultivar’ – 21.40%. The results show that the Bulgarian cultivars have very good fruit characteristics indicators, which are close to the popular introduced plum cultivars.

Keywords: fruit size; fruit weight; Prunus domestica L.; stone weight

Date published: 2018-01-12