BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF LATE-SEASON APRICOT CULTIVARS IN THE BELGRADE REGION

Apricot cultivar assortment in serbia is characterized by a small number ofcultivars and a short period of maturing. most apricot fruits are harvested in theseason of cultivar ‘hungarian best’ or at a short time afterwards. there isparticularly a lack of early- and late-maturing cultivars of high quality fruit. thisstudy was aimed at evaluating of 14 introduced apricot cultivars of late maturingtime in order to recommend the best of them for growing in the belgrade region.the study was carried out at the experimental station ‘radmilovac’ of thefaculty of agriculture in belgrade over a period of five years (2009–2013). theexperimental orchard was established in 2007, the rootstock was myrobalanseedling, and tree spacing was 4.5 x 3 m. control cultivar for comparison was‘hungarian best’, which is the most grown apricot cultivar in serbia.flowering of introduced cultivars ranged from three days before to three daysafter the control cultivar (‘hungarian best’), while the maturation time was 7 to 15days after the control. compared with the control cultivar, significantly higheryield was achieved in seven cultivars (‘harogem’, ‘umberto’, ‘litoral’, ‘sophia’,‘harlayne’, ‘bergarouge’, and ‘silistrenska kompotna’), while significantly higherfruit weight was achieved in two cultivars (‘cegledy arany’ and ‘sophia’).compared to the control higher content of soluble solids was found in fourcultivars (‘kabaasi’, ‘late dryanovska’, ‘harlayne’, and ‘silistrenska kompotna’).cultivar ‘sophia’ got the best score for fruit appearance, while cultivars ‘latedryanovska’ and ‘silistrenska kompotna’ got the best scores for taste.among studied apricot cultivars, for the cultivation in the belgrade region, thefollowing cultivars can be recommended as promising: ‘sophia’ for freshconsumption, and ‘harlayne’ and ‘silistrenska kompotna’ for processing. inaddition, five cultivars of combined traits (both for fresh consumption andprocessing) can also be recommended: ‘harogem’, ‘cegledy arany’, ‘bergarouge’,‘pisana’ and ‘late dryanovska’.