PREDICTING THE YIELD OF RED CURRANT (RIBES RUBRUM L.)

Predicting the yield of red currant a few months before full maturity is an important factor of successful harvest planning and organizing, as well as the fruit marketing. In order to generate an adequate data base and estimation method, basic parameters of red currant generative potential (yield, number of clusters per bush and number of berries per cluster) have been evidenced during two years for eleven cultivars of red currant, including the standard cultivar ‘Redpoll’. As it was expected, the analysis of experimental results verified the existence of relationship between yield and other two relevant parameters. Using this connection, the topographic map is generated by two-dimensional interpolation of experimental data by inverse-distance method. This map enabled yield estimation of red currant on the basis of number of clusters per bush and number of berries per cluster.