VARIATION IN SOME GROWTH, FRUIT YIELD AND QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT PERSIMMON CULTIVARS IN DÖRTYOL-HATAY (TURKEY)

Persimmon cultivars with pollination constant non-astringent (‘O-Gosho’, ‘Fuyu’, ‘Jirou’ and ‘Hana Fuyu’), pollination variant non-astringent (‘Amankaki’, ‘Vainiglia’, ‘Kaki Tipo’ and ‘Harbiye’) and pollination constant astringent (‘Hachiya’ and ‘Eylül’) were studied in Dörtyol-Hatay (Turkey) between 2009 and 2010. Some characteristics such as growth, fruit set, fruit yield and quality of different persimmon cultivars were determined. After bud burst occurred in late March – early April, rapid shoot growth took place and it was almost complet within a month. Shoot length ranged between 12.49 cm (‘Kaki Tipo’) and 15.54 cm (‘Fuyu’) for different persimmon cultivars. Rootstock-scion union ratio was the most ideal for ‘Amankaki’ (0.957), but it was undesirably low for ‘Fuyu’ (0.872). As much as 53.6% fruit drop was observed in the one month period after the flowering and pollination, and gradually decreased toward harvest. The highest fruit set ratio (31.9%) was found in ‘Fuyu’. The most regular fruit bearing cultivars, estimated by alternate bearing index, were ‘Jirou’, ‘Hana Fuyu’ and ‘Eylül’ (0.16-0.20), whereas ‘Hachiya’ exhibited strong biennial bearing (0.57). Yield per tree was the highest in ‘Eylül’, ‘Amankaki’ and ‘Fuyu’ (50-52 kg/tree), whereas ‘Harbiye’ and ‘O-Gosho’ had the lowest yield (15 kg/tree). ‘Hana Fuyu’ had the highest average fruit weight (263.98 g). The maximum total soluble solid content at harvesting maturity was found for ‘Hachiya’ as 20.87%.