A Compartment Model of the Effect of Early-season Temperatures on Potential Size and Growth of 'Delicious' Apple Fruits

Abstract

A compartmental growth model was developed to describe expansion of ' Delicious ' apple fruit diameter and the effect of early-season temperatures on potential size at harvest. The model was based on the assumption that growth may be described as a function of transfer between two conceptual compartments. Under this scheme, the first compartment represented all tissue contributing to the setting of potential fruit size (determined as the integral of its output) whereas the second compartment represented all other fruit tissue whose growth actualized that potential. Expansion of both compartments was assumed to have a temperature response with an optimum, whereas an aging process with an asymptotic temperature response controlled transfer to the second compartment. Model parameters were estimated by fitting to data from controlled environment experiments in which early-season temperature conditions were varied. Predicted fruit growth curves showed close agreement with measured diameter data. The results were consistent with a two-fold impact of early-season temperatures on apple fruit size : an immediate, direct effect on growth rate and an enduring effect, mediated through fruit cell number or resource allocation to young fruit, reflecting the establishment of a potential that subsequent growth actualizes. # 1999 Annals of Botany Company

An overview of preharvest factors influencing mango fruit growth, quality and postharvest behaviour

“…This factor, which reflects the total number of cells in fruit flesh, can be influenced by temperature as well. It has been suggested in other species, including Satsuma mandarin (Marsh et al, 1999) and apples (Austin et al, 1999), that temperature may affect the rate of cell division. Other preharvest factors such as resource limitation during cell division due, for example, to carbon competition, can be a source of variation of the initial fruit dry mass.…”

Prediction of final weight forActinidia chinensis‘Hort1 6A’ fruit

“…It is simply a convenient and parsimonious way to summarise observations, which provides data smoothing as well as interpolation. The second approach is more appropriate when the major interest is understanding of the dominant physiological/biochemical processes driving the growth process (e.g., Austin et al 1999;Heuvelink 1999).…”

Sink priority on ‘Hayward’ kiwifruit vines

“…The first 58 days is also the period when most cell division occurs in kiwifruit (Hopping 1976), and thus the amount of cell division during this period may be directly linked to fruit size at harvest. Austin et al (1999) described a similar correlation between early cell division and final fruit size in apple, but they cautioned that this linkage may not be causal. McPherson et al (2001) suggested that fruit size potential of kiwifruit may be determined even earlier in the season, between budbreak and flowering.…”

“…The maximum fruit size potential of kiwifruit is believed to be determined early in development, either before flowering (Piller et al 1998;McPherson et al 2001) or during an early stage of cell division (Austin et al 1999). Hall et al (1996) reported that c. 75% of the variation in mean fruit volume at harvest was already determined by 50 days after flowering.…”