Abdullah Erdo gan Apricot Researh Institue, As xa gıba glar Mah. _ Ismetpas xa Cad. No: 163, Yes xilyurt, Malatya 44250, Turkey Additional index words. Prunus armeniaca, fruit breeding, late ripening, fruit quality 'Eylul' is the most recent apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivar bred in the Multi-Purpose Apricot Breeding Program of Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey, and released for propagation in 2017. 'Eylul' means September in Turkish which addresses its late ripening characteristics.The cultivar is selfcompatible and capable of setting full crops without the presence of other cultivars. Besides, it successfully adapts Malatya, the main apricot production area in the world. 'Eylul' fruit ripen late, with a fruit development period of 149 d, and are suitable for fresh consumption with good fruit quality and productivity. Fruit are oblong shaped and are pleasant dull gold-yellow in skin color with red blush covering 5% to 10% of the fruit skin. From adequately thinned trees, growers can expect 30-35 g fruit that are juicy and having more than 17% soluble solid content and moderate acidity.

Due to its importance for organic agriculture, one of the most important agricultural production systems, various sources have been proposed to increase soil organic matter content. Vermicompost is one of those sources known as the resistant last form of farmyard manure which is degraded by earthworms. Soil organic matter or humus and their compounds are nutrient sources that increase physical, chemical and biological quality of soil. Humus and humus compounds improve soil physical, chemical and biological quality parameters increasing rhizosphere aeration and water holding capacity, rehabilitating soil structure, providing plant nutrients and constituting natural media for microorganisms with their regulative effects on soil reactions. In this study, the effects of vermicompost on yield and some growth parameters of lettuce were investigated. For this purpose, a random block designed experiment with 5 different applications was conducted in 3 replicates. The applications were control, vermicompost applications of 100 kg, 200 kg and 300 kg per decare and conventional fertilization. According to the results obtained, yield and growth parameters were improved by vermicompost application when compared to control and conventional fertilization. As a result of this study, it was concluded that 300 kg vermicompost/da is a promising application in lettuce production for optimal yield and soil improvement.

Organic agriculture is an integrated form of agriculture combines techniques of ancient knowledge with current science and targets to exclude inorganic fertilizers, growth regulators and pesticides. Generally organic products are accepted as healthier and better tasting. This opinion is more common for fruits and vegetables. Series of studies on comparison of organic and conventional fruits and vegetables have been performed but comparison of analytical quality parameters lacks in previous studies especially fatty acids and volatile aroma compounds. This study compares pomological parameters, some selected chemical properties, fatty acid composition and volatile aroma compounds of organic and conventionally grown Ferragnes and Ferraduel almond cultivars. Results indicated significant differences between cultivars and growing systems suggesting a better overall market quality for organic kernel samples. Total oil and linoleic acid was lower in organic samples, whereas oleic was higher (82.4% in both cultivars) when compared with conventional samples (78.9% for Ferragnes and 75.8% for Ferraduel). Most of the aroma compounds detected in this present study are new record for almond aroma-active compounds. In an overall view, organic samples resulted with higher contents of aroma compounds.

This study was conducted to observe the effects of some physical, chemical and microwave pretreatments on drying period and prune colour of Stanley plums dried in the sun. For this aim, seven pretreatments including piercing with thin needle, cutting fruit layer by knife, microwave application, dipping into solutions of NaOH and K2CO3 with or without olive oil addition were compared with untreated samples. Microwave application was the most effective pretreatment in reducing drying time (95 h) while control was the slowest drying application (401 h). Microwave and other chemical applications negatively affected colour by increasing redness of prunes. Olive oil addition decreased this negative effect but decelerated drying process. Layer cutting were concluded to be a promising method since it significantly accelerated drying while saving colour of prunes.

Cherries are known as health friendly fruits due to their abundant phytochemical compositions. This study was conducted to determine phytochemical and pomological fruit properties of different cherry species including mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb L.), wild sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), wild sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.), two sweet cherries (‘Napoleon’ and ‘Starks Gold’) and one sour cherry (‘Kütahya’) cultivars. For this aim, together with various pomological traits, total phenolics and anthocyanin contents, antioxidant capacity, organic acids, sugars, were analyzed in fruits of relevant genotypes. Results of all examined traits significantly varied between genotypes. Mahaleb showed the highest TSS (30.17%), fructose (8.71 μg/g) and glucose (20.74 μg/g) contents. Wild sour cherry gave the highest antioxidant capacity (13.25 mmol TE/kg total weight), anthocyanin (351.0 mg Pg-3-glk/kg total weight), citric acid (0.56 μg/g) and malic acid (2.96 μg/g) contents. As a rootstock, mahaleb was found to be superior in some of the traits when compared to wild sweet cherry. Significant correlations were observed between various traits. Additionally, principal component analysis (PCA) revealed different relationships among the traits and evaluated genotypes.