SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

Scientific Papers, USAMV Bucharest, Series A, Vol. LII, 2009, ISSN 1222-5339APRICOT ADAPTABILITY UNDER THE ROMANIANCLIMATIC CONDITIONSVIORICA BĂLAN*, VALERICA TUDOR*, ELENA TOPOR**, CONSTANTINACHIRECEANU***, IONELA DOBRIN*, BEATRICE IACOMI**University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest**Research and Development Station for Fruit-tree Growing of Constanta***Plant Protection Research Institute of BucharestKeywords: apricot, fenotypes, climatic changesAbstractResearch on the adaptability of 665 apricot phenotypes from seven geographic areas,preserved in the genetic collections, 9000 hybrids and 35 variety created in Romania, haveshown that, out of 27 seven years (1981-2007), seven years were unfavourable to apricotgrowing (of which four years were successive in the first decade of this century). Over thepast four years, the short frost periods (-7 0 C), sometimes lasting for only several hours,following longer warm periods at the end of February (+12 0 C, +20 0 C), affected the apricotphenotypes in their early budding or flowering stage. The damage resulted was 90-100% .The consequences of the climatic changes are significant with respect to the biologicaltransformation of the fruiting and vegetative organs and, further on correlated to thebiology of the most frequent pathogens, pests and predators in Romania.445