Bioagronomic traits of eighteen apricot cultivars grafted on ‘GF677’ with Prunus persica L. as interstock in a semi-arid environment in Sicily

Apricot cultivation is of great interest in southern Italy due to the potential wide harvest period using early and late-ripening cultivars. Recent breeding programs, carried out in several European countries, have also selected new genotypes suitable for low latitude areas. However, the introduction of several cultivars in such areas was not preceded by an extensive evaluation of the bioagronomic characteristics. In our work, we studied the pomological and qualitative traits of 17 international and 1 Italian apricot cultivars grafted on GF677, using Prunus persica L. as an interstock, grown in East Sicily under organic management. The following traits were measured: fruit weight and size, pulp percentage, firmness, geometrical mean diameter, sphericity coefficient, skin and pulp color and color index, total soluble solids (TSS), pH, acidity, ascorbic acid, total polyphenols, antioxidant capacity. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to study the correlation among fruit quality measurements and to investigate the relationships among genotypes as a tool for cultivar characterization. ‘Megatea’ cultivar provided the largest fruits, whereas the firmness of the international cultivars was higher than the Italian one. The intensity of the color was higher in mid-late and late cultivars. The qualitative traits, TSS content, and total polyphenols were higher in the late cultivars. This research provides new information to help identify the most promising cultivars suitable for organic systems in Italy's southern regions.