Climate Effects on Fruit and Vegetables, Juvenility, and Flowering

October 15 - October 19, 2012

We learned that Long-day treatment shorten the juvenility form 5 to 10 y to 1 y of birch

GAs treatments can induce flowering in juvenility of ivy cypress  and fir

Vernalization refers low temperature promotion of flowering.

After seed germination, the germinating seed (seedling) is treated with  low T and sown in the warm field. The plant can flowers in summer day, which is called vernalization at early time. Now every response of plant life cycle to low T is called vernalization.

• In general, the plant flowering need long day period and higher temperature after finishing vernalization, which induces flower  differentiation.

Environmental conditions affecting fruit development and flowering are:

Water: deficient water results in slow growth and small fruit. Superfluous water causes fruit drop and less sweet, less aromatic.

Temperature: Fruit development is enhanced by greater difference in T between day and night.

Light: without enough light, fruit is smaller, low sugar contents and poor color.

We talked about juvenility which is the physiological state of a seedling or branch in which it does not flower. Juvenile plants are unable to form flowers even if they receive flower-inducing signals such as changes in day length or temperature. Plants must pass through this juvenile period and become mature before they can respond to inductive cues and flower.