PHENOLOGY, PRODUCTION AND FRUIT QUALITY OF NEW CZECH APRICOT CULTIVARS IN THE BELGRADE REGION

This study was aimed at evaluating of 14 new apricot cultivars created at the Faculty of Horticulture in Lednice in the Czech Republic in order to recommend the best of them for growing in the Belgrade region. The study was carried out at the Experimental station ‘Radmilovac’ of the Faculty of Agriculture in Belgrade over a period of five years (2009–2013). The experimental orchard was established in 2007, the rootstock was Myrobalan seedling, and tree spacing was 4.5 x 3 m. The control cultivar for comparison was the clone of ‘Velkopavlovick?’ cultivar (type of ‘Hungarian Best’), LE-12/2. Flowering of introduced cultivars started from three days before to one day after the control cultivar, while the maturation time ranged from 19 days earlier in cultivar ‘Leskora’ to 12 days after the control in cultivar ‘Sophia’ (LE-2926). Compared with the control cultivar, significantly higher yield was achieved only in cultivar ‘Palava’, while significantly higher fruit weight was recorded in three cultivars: ‘Candela’ (LE-2927), ‘Sophia’ (LE-2926) and ‘Betinka’ (LE-3276). Cultivars ‘Sophia’ and ‘Betinka’ got the best scores for fruit appearance, while cultivars ‘Marlen’ and ‘Lebona’ ranked the highest for fruit taste. Among studied apricot cultivars, for the cultivation in the Belgrade region, the following cultivars can be recommended as promising: ‘Palava’ (early season), ‘Betinka’ (mid-season) and ‘Sophia’ (late season). Regarding the large size and attractive appearance of fruits, these cultivars are more suitable for fresh consumption, but they can also be used for processing.