Relation of sour cherry blooming dynamics and meteorological variables

The aim of our research was to identify the role of weather parameters in the development of the start date and length of blooming.In order to achieve this, we examined how meteorological conditions of a particular year influence the start date and length of blooming indifferent years (dry, wet, cool, hot, sunny, cloudy). The meteorological parameters were the following: maximum temperature, minimumtemperature, average temperature, precipitation, length of sunlight, difference of daytime and nightime temperatures, potential evaporation-PET, Huglin-index,Winkler-index, climatic water balance which can be calculated as a difference of precipitation and potential evaporation.In this study we wanted to find out whether early start of blooming results in a longer blooming period or if there is a generally faster bloomingperiod when blooming starts later. Based on the results we can say that early start of blooming resulted in extended blooming period for threesour cherry varieties at the examined production sites. The start of blooming showed the closest relation with the difference of averagedaytime and nightime temperatures of the 30-day period prior to blooming. Significant relation was also detected with the thermic indexes aswell as with maximum temperatures, climatic water balance and the degree of potential evaporation.We examined how weather 30 days priorand during blooming influenced the length of phases. Results showed that precipitation prior and during blooming is in significant relationwith the length of blooming. We detected significant relation between daytime and nightime temperature differences and the length ofblooming. The nature of the relation indicates that blooming periods were shorter in case of increasing temperature differences.We found thatshorter blooming lengths occurred when maximum temperatures averaged between 13.5–14.5 ºC 30 days prior to blooming when examiningthe relation between blooming length and maximum temperature. If the average of maximum temperatures was below 13 ºC or exceeded15 ºC during this period, then we could calculate with a blooming period longer than ten days. We proved that little precipitation and hightemperature accelerates physiological processes, therefore we could calculate with an accelerated blooming and shorter blooming period