A B S T R A C TSouthern highbush blueberry has an early harvesting and then a long period of vegetative growth until dormancy, compared to highbush and rabbiteye blueberries. Nitrogen requirements could be different because of this specific early harvesting. Absorption of 15 N enriched ammonium sulfate was compared at five phenological stages from bud swell to pre-dormancy in two years old plants of the cultivars Star and ÓNeal. Plants grown in pots were irrigated with ammonium sulfate solution ( 15 N). Five plants for each application date were excavated and separated in parts (roots, canes, leaves, flowers, fruits or floral buds). Samples were taken three weeks after application from bud swell to pre-harvest treatment, and three month after for post-harvest and pre-dormancy treatment. Each tissue were dried and weighed before and after, and analyzed for 15 N content, N content and N %....N%, and in leaves were also determined macro and micro nutrients. Nitrogen fertilization at bud swell is effective, even for the ÓNeal cultivarthat present floral bud break in absence of leaves. Post-harvest fertilization contribute N for summer vegetativegrowth which would influence the floral buds development next year, Nitrogenstorage at this time would led to the improved floral behavior next year. Nitrogen losses risk is lower at post-harvestfertilization.

Five-year-old hardy kiwifruit [Actinidia arguta (Sieb. et Zucc.) Miq. `Ananasnaya'] vines in a commercial vineyard were subjected to thinning before bloom in 1999. Flowers were thinned at four severities: 0% (control), 15%, 30%, and 50% flower bud removal (2-5 June). The average yield of vines thinned 50% was significantly less than that of control vines. However, marketable yield from vines thinned 15%, 30% and 50% was not significantly different from control vines. Thinning, regardless of severity, increased average fruit volume and king fruit volume by 18% and 27%, respectively, compared to control vines. King fruit were more affected by thinning than the two adjacent lateral fruit in the cluster. Thinning before bloom had no effect on percent soluble solids, seed number or total seed weight per fruit.

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Blueberry roots are inefficient in taking up water and nutrients, a fact partially related to their scarcity of root hairs, but they improve nutrient uptake by associating with ericoid mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi. However, the benefits of this association are both cultivar- and fungus-dependent. Our objective was to assess the effect of inoculation with three native fungal strains (Oidiodendron maius A, O. maius BP, and Acanthomyces lecanii BC) on plantlet growth, plantlet survival, and nitrogen (N) absorption of the southern highbush blueberry (SHB) cultivars Biloxi and Misty. The fungal strains were inoculated into the peat-based substrate for growing blueberry cultivars, and plantlets produced by micropropagation were transplanted and grown for four months. The three inoculated strains positively affected the survival percentage in at least one of the cultivars tested, whereas O. maius BP positively affected plant biomass, N derived from fertilizer absorption, N content, and plant N recovery (%) in both Biloxi and Misty. Our results show that the O. maius BP strain may prove useful as a bio-inoculant to improve blueberry production during the nursery stage.