• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.666-676
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• 2013

The study was carried out to examine the initial point of dormancy, breaking time of internal dormancy, and to find out the accumulated hours of low temperature (under $7.2^{\circ}C$ from $0.0^{\circ}C$ to $7.2^{\circ}C$) for bud-breaking. Over-all, the chilling requirement for breaking of internal dormancy in the commercial apple cultivars ('Fuji' and 'Tsugaru') and apple cultivars bred in Korea ('Hongro', 'Sunhong', 'Honggeum', 'Hongan', 'Hongso', 'Gamhong', 'Summer dream') at the Gunwi region for 4 years (from 2009 to 2012) was investigated. Also, the breaking time of internal dormancy in the field at the Gunwi region and the breaking time of dormancy if air temperature of Gunwi region rises $4^{\circ}C$ higher than the current one were investigated using the same data. The initial point of dormancy was set at the time when the lateral bud breaking did not occurred (when heading back cutting was done in the middle of terminal shoots). The occurrence of the breaking of internal dormancy was decided if the breaking of the terminal bud of bourse shoot occurred within 15 days or not in growth chamber. About 100 bourse shoots were collected by cultivar classification in early December every year and were stored at $5.0^{\circ}C$, and they were placed in growth chamber at one week interval. The chilling requirement of cultivars was expressed in accumulated hours in the field and in the growth chamber under $7.2^{\circ}C$ and $0.0-7.2^{\circ}C$ from the initial point of dormancy to the breaking time of internal dormancy. The results showed that the initial point of dormancy in selected cultivars could occur at the end of September. The breaking time of internal dormancy could occur from the end of January to the early of February. The accumulated hours under $7.2^{\circ}C$ for breaking of internal dormancy were 1,600-2,000 hours, while those of $0.0-7.2^{\circ}C$ were 1,300-1,800 hours. In comparing the different apple cultivars, the chilling requirement of the early flowering cultivars seemed lower than that of the late-flowering cultivars. Based on these results, if the air temperature of Gunwi region rises about $4.0^{\circ}C$ higher than the current one, the breaking time of internal dormancy will be delayed by 2-4 weeks.