Tree growth, productivity and fruit properties of early ripening

European plum (Prunus domestica L.) cultivars

NEBOJŠA MILOŠEVIĆ1*, IVANA GLIŠIĆ1, MILENA ĐORĐEVIĆ1, SANJA RADIČEVIĆ1, SLAĐANA MARIĆ1, TOMO MILOŠEVIĆ2
1Fruit Research Institute, Čačak, Department of Pomology and Fruit Breeding, Kralja Petra I/9, 32000, Čačak, Republic of Serbia, *mnebojsa@ftn.kg.ac.rs
2Faculty of Agronomy, University of Kragujevac, Department of Fruit Growing and Viticulture, Cara Dušana 34, 32000 Čačak, Republic of Serbia

1. INTRODUCTION
There are more than 6,000 cultivars of plum in the world, originating from a large number of different species from Europe, Asia and North America (1,2).
Regardless of such a large number, there is a constant need in the world for the development of new high-quality cultivars which fulfill requirements of the
market and the processing industry. The most important breeding goals include: large quality fruits of dark blue colour, yield performance and sharka (Plum pox
virus) tolerance/resistance, very early and very late ripening time (3,4). Early ripening cultivars are mainly intended for fresh consumption and are not suitable
for any kind of processing due to low content of soluble solids and sugars (5). However, the fruits of these cultivars generally reach a higher price on the fresh
fruit market and there is a permanent demand for them. The aim of this work was to examine the tree growth and productivity characteristics, fruit physical as
well as fruit chemical properties of three domestic (ʻBorankaʼ, ʻČačanska Ranaʼ and ʻValerijaʼ) and three introduced (ʻKatinkaʼ, ʻTegeraʼ and ʻOpalʼ) European
plum cultivars which were harvested from the middle of the first to the end of the second decade of July.

2. MATERIAL AND METHODS

The experiment was carried out during 2020 and 2021 in an experimental orchard at the ʻPreljinsko Brdoʼ facility of Fruit Research Institute, Čačak on three
domestic (ʻBorankaʼ, ʻČačanska Ranaʼ and ʻValerijaʼ) and three introduced (ʻKatinkaʼ, ʻTegeraʼ and ʻOpalʼ) early ripening plum cultivars grafted on Myrobalan
seedling. The orchard was established in April 2011 with planting 4m × 2.5m distance i.e. 1000 trees ha-1 and trees were grown as a spindle bush. Standard
cultural practices were applied except irrigation. The trial was set up in a randomized block design with three replications, each containing five trees of each
cultivar (n= 15). The tree growth (trunk cross-sectional area), and productivity characteristics (yield per tree, cumulative yield and yield efficiency), fruit physical
(fruit and stone weight, flesh percentage, fruit linear dimensions (height, weight and thickness), geometric mean diameter and sphericity) as well as fruit
chemical properties (soluble solids, total and invert sugars and sucrose content, total acids, pH value and ripening index) were evaluated.

ʻBorankaʼ ʻČačanska Ranaʼ ʻValerijaʼ ʻKatinkaʼ ʻOpalʼ ʻTegeraʼ

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1. Ripening time, tree growth and productivity of examined cultivars Table 4. Content of soluble solids, total and invert sugars and saccharose
Cultivar Ripening time
TCSA Yield per tree Yield efficiency of examined cultivars
(cm2) (kg) (kg cm-2)
Soluble Solids Total Sugars Invert Sugars Saccharose
ʻBorankaʼ 188 9.07. 66.651.67 c 17.620.41 d 0.270.01 d Cultivar
(%) (%) (%) (%)
ʻČačanska Ranaʼ 193 12.07. 76.823.05 a 22.661.52 bc 0.300.02 c
ʻBorankaʼ 12.591.10 c 7.870.05 c 4.450.02 e 3.250.03 a
ʻKatinkaʼ 195 14.07. 70.792.46 b 26.001.40 a 0.370.03 a
ʻČačanska Ranaʼ 10.780.09 d 6.720.03 f 4.120.01 f 2.460.02 c
ʻOpalʼ 199 18.07. 68.733.04 bc 23.460.79 b 0.350.02 ab
ʻKatinkaʼ 14.670.14 b 10.300.02 b 8.720.02 a 1.500.01 e
ʻTegeraʼ 200 19.07. 66.602.47 c 21.630.77 c 0.330.02 b
ʻOpalʼ 13.110.28 c 7.370.09 e 5.740.04 d 1.550.10 e
ʻValerijaʼ 201 20.07. 61.752.21 d 17.270.80 d 0.280.02 cd
ʻTegeraʼ 15.460.48 a 10.880.01 a 8.040.07 b 2.690.05 b
*The different lower-case letters assigned to columns show significant differences for Р 0.05 after applying LSD test.
ʻValerijaʼ 12.620.06 c 7.710.01 d 5.880.03 c 1.750.03 d
*The different lower-case letters assigned to columns show significant differences for Р 0.05 after applying LSD test.

Table 2. Fruit and stone weight, flesh percentage and sphericity of Table 5. Content of total acids, pH value and ripening index of examined
examined cultivars cultivars
Fruit Weight Stone Weight Flesh Percentage Total Acids
Cultivar Sphericity Cultivar pH Ripening Index
(g) (g) (%) (%)
ʻBorankaʼ 56.612.71 c 1.570.13 cd 97.170.29 a 0.940.01 b ʻBorankaʼ 0.980.01 c 3.400.01 b 12.880.12 c
ʻČačanska Ranaʼ 61.042.75 b 2.630.06 a 95.660.19 c 0.830.01 c ʻČačanska Ranaʼ 1.270.01 a 3.250.01 d 8.450.06 e
ʻKatinkaʼ 31.511.42 de 1.270.07 e 95.960.22 c 0.830.01 c ʻKatinkaʼ 0.780.01 e 3.520.01 a 18.840.17 a
ʻOpalʼ 29.631.51 e 1.430.02 d 95.130.23 d 0.950.00 b ʻOpalʼ 1.140.02 b 3.550.02 a 11.450.06 d
ʻTegeraʼ 33.351.01 d 1.720.03 c 94.800.18 d 0.830.01 c
ʻTegeraʼ 1.170.01 b 3.260.03 cd 13.210.31 c
ʻValerijaʼ 64.421.37 a 2.130.07 b 96.690.13 b 0.970.00 a
ʻValerijaʼ 0.880.01 d 3.300.01 c 14.290.04 b
*The different lower-case letters assigned to columns show significant differences for Р 0.05 after applying LSD test.
*The different lower-case letters assigned to columns show significant differences for Р 0.05 after applying LSD test.

Table 3. Fruit dimensions and geometric mean diameter of examined 4. CONCLUSSION

cultivars The results obtained in our work showed that all examined cultivars ripened from
Fruit Height Fruit Length Fruit Thickness Geometric Mean
Cultivar
(mm) (mm) (mm) Diameter the end of the first to the end of the second decade of July. Tree growth was strong
ʻBorankaʼ 44.600.58 d 41.810.55 b 39.270.69 c 41.830.45 c in ʻČačanska Ranaʼ, moderate in ʻBorankaʼ, ʻKatinkaʼ, ʻTegeraʼ and ʻOpalʼ and
ʻČačanska Ranaʼ 61.450.82 a 47.890.94 a 45.140.93 a 51.010.82 a
ʻKatinkaʼ 47.920.69 b 38.670.39 c 34.571.09 e 39.980.45 d medium-low in ʻValerijaʼ. Yield per tree and yield efficiency were the highest in
ʻOpalʼ 40.800.67 e 38.110.52 c 37.410.51 d 38.740.57 e ʻKatinkaʼ and ʻOpalʼ and the lowest in ʻBorankaʼ. The largest fruit was recorded in
ʻTegeraʼ 47.050.72 c 36.590.65 d 34.510.57 e 39.010.50 e
ʻValerijaʼ 45.170.72 d 42.800.90 b 42.991.08 b 43.630.85 b ʻValerijaʼ and ʻČačanska Ranaʼ which influenced the highest values of physical
*The different lower-case letters assigned to columns show significant differences for Р 0.05 after applying LSD test. properties in these cultivars. In contrast, ʻKatinkaʼ, ʻTegeraʼ and ʻOpalʼ had smaller
5. LITERATURE CITED fruit and lower values of physical properties. ʻValerijaʼ, ʻOpalʼ and ʻBorankaʼ had
1. Neumüller, M. (2011). Fundamental and applied aspects of plum (Prunus domestica L.) breeding. In Fruit, Vegetable fruits of roundish shape, while ʻČačanska Ranaʼ, ʻKatinkaʼ and ʻTegeraʼ had
and Cereal Science and Biotechnology 5, H. Flachowsky and V.M. Hanke, eds. (Ikenobe, Kagawa-ken, Japan: Global
Science Book Ltd), p.139‒154.
elongated fruits. Chemical properties significantly differed among examined
2. Milošević, T., and Milošević, N. (2018). Plum (Prunus spp.) breeding. In Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Fruits, cultivars. The highest soluble solids and total sugars content were found in ʻTegeraʼ,
J.M. Al-Khayri, M.S. Jain, and D.V. Johnson, eds. (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG), p.165−215
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91944-7_5 invert sugars in ʻKatinkaʼ and saccharose in ʻBorankaʼ. In contrast, ʻČačanska Ranaʼ
3. Glišić, I., Milošević, N., Karaklajić-Stajić, Ž., Đorđević, M., and Lukić M. (2018). ʻDivnaʼ − new plum (Prunus domestica
L.) cultivar developed at Fruit Research Institute, Čačak. J. Pomol. 52 (201), 7−13.
had the smallest all of these parameters except saccharose which was the lowest in
4. Milošević, N., Glišić, I., Đorđević, M., Radičević, S., Marić, S., and Jevremović, D. (2021). An overview of plum ʻKatinkaʼ and ʻOpalʼ. ʻČačanska Ranaʼ had the highest total acids content and the
breeding at Fruit Research Institute, Čačak. Acta Hortic. 1322, 7–11
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1322.2 lowest ripening index. Conversely, the lowest amount of total acids was found in
5. Crisosto, C.H., Garner, D., Crisosto, G.M., and Bowerman, E. (2004). Increasing ‘Blackamber’ plum (Prunus salicina
Lindley) consumer acceptance. Postharvest Biol. Technol. 34, 237–244
ʻKatinkaʼ who had the highest ripening index. Considering the lack of quality
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2004.06.003 cultivars in Serbia that ripen in this period, these cultivars could find place in
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS smaller extent in the commercial orchards. However, since they are not suitable for
This research was conducted under the support of Ministry of Science, processing, before planting, it is necessary to pay attention to the available market.
Technological Development and Innovation of the RS, contract No. 451-
03-47/2023-01/200215.
V Balkan Symposium on Fruit Growing, Zagreb, Croatia, June 18-21, 2023