Growth Pattern and Fruit Characteristics of Six Common Fig (Ficus carica L.) Cultivars in Jordan

This research aimed to study the growth pattern of shoot, fruit and drupelet, and fruit characteristics of six common fig cultivars ajlouni, byadi, khartamani, khdari, mwazi, and zraki. periodic measurements showed that the growth of the fruit and drupelet are characterized by two periods of rapid growth separated by a period of slow growth. many fruit characteristics, which were fruit weight, volume, width and length, tss%, ta%, fruit stalk length, peel thickness and pistil length, were measured and were in the range of 9.3-27.6 g, 9.3-29.0 ml, 2.59-3.78 cm, 2.48-5.03 cm, 21.46-26.75%, 0.28-0.59%, 6.9-16.4 mm, 1.87-3.16 mm and 3.89-4.74 mm, respectively. in addition, fruit skin color was yellowish green in 'byadi', green in 'mwazi', 'khdari' and 'ajlouni', and purple in 'khartamani' and 'zraki'. regarding shoot length, the six cultivars grew in the same pattern. there were two growth phases, the first growth phase continued for about 6 weeks during spring, with a very rapid shoot length increase, and the second one was characterized by quite totally reduced shoot length and continued to the end of growing season. moreover, the apical dominance was very strong in 'zraki', strong in 'khdari', moderate in 'byadi' and 'mwazi' and moderate to weak in 'ajlouni'; while it was weak in 'khartamani'. application of these results in improving fig tree training is discussed