• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.185-191
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• 2005

An accurate prediction of dormancy release and bud burst in temperate zone fruit trees is indispensable for farmers to plan heating time under partially controlled environments as well as to reduce the risk of frost damage in open fields. A thermal time-based two-step phenological model that originated in Italy was applied to two important grapevine cultivars in Korea for predicting bud-burst dates. The model consists of two sequential periods: a rest period described by chilling requirement and a forcing period described by heating requirement. It requires daily maximum and minimum temperature as an input and calculates daily chill units (chill days in negative sign) until a pre-determined chilling requirement for rest release is met. After the projected rest release date, it adds daily heat units (anti-chill days in positive sign) to the chilling requirement. The date when the sum reaches zero isregarded as the bud-burst in the model. Controlled environment experiments using field sampled twigs of 'Campbell Early' and 'Kyoho' cultivars were carried out in the vineyard at the National Horticultural Research Institute (NHRI) in Suwon during 2004-2005 to derive the model parameters: threshold temperature for chilling and chilling requirement for breaking dormancy. The model adjusted with the selected parameters was applied to the 1994-2004 daily temperature data obtained from the automated weather station in the NHRI vineyard to estimate bud burst dates of two cultivars and the results were compared with the observed data. The model showed a consistently good performance in predicting the bud burst of 'Campbell Early' and 'Kyoho' cultivars with 2.6 and 2.5 days of root mean squared error, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.61-71
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• 2009

Most deciduous trees in temperate zone are dormant during the winter to overcome cold and dry environment. Dormancy of deciduous fruit trees is usually separated into a period of rest by physiological conditions and a period of quiescence by unfavorable environmental conditions. Inconsistent and fewer budburst in pear orchards has been reported recently in South Korea and Japan and the insufficient chilling due to warmer winters is suspected to play a role. An accurate prediction of the flowering time under the climate change scenarios may be critical to the planning of adaptation strategy for the pear industry in the future. However, existing methods for the prediction of budburst depend on the spring temperature, neglecting potential effects of warmer winters on the rest release and subsequent budburst. We adapted a dormancy clock model which uses daily temperature data to calculate the thermal time for simulating winter phenology of deciduous trees and tested the feasibility of this model in predicting budburst and flowering of Niitaka pear, one of the favorite cultivars in Korea. In order to derive the model parameter values suitable for Niitaka, the mean time for the rest release was estimated by observing budburst of field collected twigs in a controlled environment. The thermal time (in chill-days) was calculated and accumulated by a predefined temperature range from fall harvest until the chilling requirement (maximum accumulated chill-days in a negative number) is met. The chilling requirement is then offset by anti-chill days (in positive numbers) until the accumulated chill-days become null, which is assumed to be the budburst date. Calculations were repeated with arbitrary threshold temperatures from $4^{\circ}C$ to $10^{\circ}C$ (at an interval of 0.1), and a set of threshold temperature and chilling requirement was selected when the estimated budburst date coincides with the field observation. A heating requirement (in accumulation of anti-chill days since budburst) for flowering was also determined from an experiment based on historical observations. The dormancy clock model optimized with the selected parameter values was used to predict flowering of Niitaka pear grown in Suwon for the recent 9 years. The predicted dates for full bloom were within the range of the observed dates with 1.9 days of root mean square error.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.68-76
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• 2006

A thermal time-based two-step phenological model was used to project flowering dates of Japanese cherry in South Korea from 1941 to 2100. The model consists of two sequential periods: the rest period described by chilling requirement and the forcing period described by heating requirement. Daily maximum and minimum temperature are used to calculate daily chill units until a pre-determined chilling requirement for rest release is met. After the projected rest release date, daily heat units (growing degree days) are accumulated until a pre-determined heating requirement for flowering is achieved. Model calculations using daily temperature data at 18 synoptic stations during 1955-2004 were compared with the observed blooming dates and resulted in 3.9 days mean absolute error, 5.1 days root mean squared error, and a correlation coefficient of 0.86. Considering that the phonology observation has never been fully standardized in Korea, this result seems reasonable. Gridded data sets of daily maximum and minimum temperature with a 270 m grid spacing were prepared for the climatological years 1941-1970 and 1971-2000 from observations at 56 synoptic stations by using a spatial interpolation scheme for correcting urban heat island effect as well as elevation effect. A 25km-resolution temperature data set covering the Korean Peninsula, prepared by the Meteorological Research Institute of Korea Meteorological Administration under the condition of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change-Special Report on Emission Scenarios A2, was converted to 270 m gridded data for the climatological years 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100. The model was run by the gridded daily maximum and minimum temperature data sets, each representing a climatological normal year for 1941-1970, 1971-2000, 2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100. According to the model calculation, the spatially averaged flowering date for the 1971-2000 normal is shorter than that for 1941-1970 by 5.2 days. Compared with the current normal (1971-2000), flowering of Japanese cherry is expected to be earlier by 9, 21, and 29 days in the future normal years 2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100, respectively. Southern coastal areas might experience springs with incomplete or even no Japanese cherry flowering caused by insufficient chilling for breaking bud dormancy.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two male cultivars of asparagus with low different chilling periods on bud breaking, relative spear growth rate, shoot number and yield. Four-month-old plants of two male cultivars of asparagus were dried to impose dormancy and placed in a coldroom at $5^{\circ}C$ to satisfy the chilling requirement for 0, 2, 4, and 6 weeks. After the specified chilling time, the pots were placed in greenhouse. The results showed that mean days to bud break of 'Jersey Giant' significantly decreased with an increasing chilling period from 0 to 6 weeks, but 'Jersey Supreme' was not affected. The relative spear growth rate of 'Jersey Supreme' was significantly stimulated by chilling compared to non-chilled plants. Shoot production and total spear weight of 'Jersey Supreme' tended to be greater than 'Jersey Giant' irrespective of chilling treatments. Following low temperature treatment, 'Jersey Supreme' showed shorter dormant period than 'Jersey Giant', faster growth of spear. The present study showed that asparagus male cultivar at duration of chilling treatment had an affirmative effect on bud breaking, spear growth rates, shoot number and yield of asparagus.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.29-35
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• 2012

Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.) is the national symbol and was once the most important temperate fruit crop in Taiwan. Fruiting cultivars were originally introduced from southern China but commercial production was not significant until the 1970s. Currently 6,400 ha of Japanese apricot orchards distribute on shallow mountain hills in the central and the southern part of the island. Taiwanese commercial fruiting cultivars are plausibly chance seedlings or sports from the early introduction and are very low chilling required for budbreak. Ornamental cultivars have been mainly introduced from Japan but cultivations have been limited in high altitude area due to their high chilling requirement. In 2009, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute's breeding program released the first low chill ornamental cultivar 'Tainung No.2' with a great ornamental potential in subtropical regions. Cultivation and production of Japanese apricot fruit in Taiwan continue to dwindle due to the declining Japanese market share. Ongoing industry transformation to increase domestic consumption and consumer's interest will sustain the future of Japanese apricot in Taiwan.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.177-182
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• 2004

A chill unit has been used to estimate chilling requirement for dormancy release and risk of freezing damage. A system that calculates chill units was developed to obtain site-specific estimates of dormancy release date for grapes and evaluated in Baekgu myun near Kimje City, Chunbuk, Korea from September 2002 to March 2003. The system utilized daily minimum and maximum temperature maps generated from spatial interpolation with temperature correction for topography. Hourly temperature was temporally interpolated from the daily data using a sine-exponential equation (Patron and Logan, 1981). Hourly chill units were determined from sigmoid, reverse sigmoid, and negatively increasing sigmoid functions based on temperature ranges and summed for 24 h. Cumulative daily chill units obtained from measurements did not increase until 20 October 2002, which was used as a start date for accumulation to estimate the dormancy release date. As a result, a map of dormancy release date in the study area was generated, assuming 800 chill units as a threshold for the chilling requirement. The chill unit accumulation system, implemented using Microsoft Visual Basic and C++ (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA), runs in the Windows environment with ArcView (ESRl Inc., Redlands, CA, USA).

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.148-155
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• 2005

An accurate prediction of blooming date is crucial for many authorities to schedule and organize successful spring flower festivals in Korea. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has been using regression models combined with a subjective correction by forecasters to issue blooming date forecasts for major cities. Using mean monthly temperature data for February (observed) and March (predicted), they issue blooming date forecasts in late February to early March each year. The method has been proved accurate enough for the purpose of scheduling spring festivals in the relevant cities, but cannot be used in areas where no official climate and phenology data are available. We suggest a thermal time-based two-step phenological model for predicting the blooming dates of spring flowers, which can be applied to any geographic location regardless of data availability. The model consists of two sequential periods: the rest period described by chilling requirement and the forcing period described by heating requirement. It requires daily maximum and minimum temperature as an input and calculates daily chill units until a pre-determined chilling requirement for rest release. After the projected rest release date, it accumulates daily heat units (growing degree days) until a pre- determined heating requirement for flowering. Model parameters were derived from the observed bud-burst and flowering dates of cherry tree (Prunus serrulata var. spontanea) at KMA Seoul station along with daily temperature data for 1923-1950. The model was applied to the 1955-2004 daily temperature data to estimate the cherry blooming dates and the deviations from the observed dates were compared with those predicted by the KMA method. Our model performed better than the KMA method in predicting the cherry blooming dates during the last 50 years (MAE = 2.31 vs. 1.58, RMSE = 2.96 vs. 2.09), showing a strong feasibility of operational application.

• FLOWER RESEARCH JOURNAL
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2011

The experiment investigated effect of duration, temperature, and light condition during chilling treatment on growth and flowering of four Campanula species in a factorial experiment. Two parent species, Campanula punctata Lam. var. rubriflora Mak. and C. Punctata Lam., and their two $F_1$ hybrids, C. punctata Lam. ${\times}$ C. punctata Lam. var. rubriflora Mak. ('Jiknyeo') and C. punctata Lam. var. rubriflora Mak. ${\times}$ C. punctata Lam. ('Gyeonu'), were used. Plants were cultured in vitro for five weeks at $25^{\circ}C$ under about $75{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$ PPFD before being chilled at 4 or $25^{\circ}C$ for 3, 6, or 9 weeks under a darkened or lighted (about $10{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$ PPFD) condition. After chilling treatment, plants were transplanted to 10 cm pots filled with a commercial growing medium and were transferred to environment-controlled growth chambers and subsequently to a greenhouse to observe their reproductive growth. Growth of all species and flowering of a $F_1$ hybrid 'Jiknyeo' were affected by duration, temperature, and light condition during chilling treatment. The greatest growth and survival percentage were observed in C. punctata Lam. var. rubriflora Mak. The survival percentage was greater when plants were chilled in a lighted than darkened condition, whereas it decreased when plants were chilled more than six weeks in vitro. Among the four species tested, flowering was observed only in a $F_1$ hybrid 'Jiknyeo' with 62.5% flowering plants when it was chilled at $25^{\circ}C$ for three weeks under a lighted condition. Percent flowering plant was affected by duration, temperature, and light condition during chilling treatment. Three-week chilling at $4^{\circ}C$ under a darkened condition significantly reduced days to flowering. These results suggest that the low temperature requirement for flowering is not qualitative but quantitative in Campanula species. Further experiment with more number of plants is necessary to ascertain this conclusion.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.501-510
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the onset and release of endo-dormancy under natural conditions by observing bud break characteristics in 'Fuji' apple trees using water cuttings. Through examinations of bud break rate and days to bud break, we found that the endo-dormancy of 'Fuji' apple tree continues for 70 d from 165 to 255 d after full bloom (DAFB), from late October to early January of the following year. In addition, within 20 d of first bud break, based on a final bud break rate of 60% or more, we able to identify the timing of the changeover from para-dormancy to endo-dormancy, and endo-dormancy to eco-dormancy. Analysis of the chilling requirement during the endo-dormancy period revealed that chilling accumulation up to 255 DAFB to release endo-dormancy amounted to 666 and 517 h based on the CH and Utah models, respectively. Observation of internal changes in the bud during endo-dormancy showed that flower bud differentiation begins from mid-July, and t ime of inflorescence o f the disk f lower is a vailable to f ind. The f lower buds subsequently developed slowly but steadily during endo-dormancy and in the following year in February, the developmental stage of each organ had progressed. Moreover, the flower buds of 'Fuji' apples were mostly healthy during the dormancy period, but some exhibited necrosis of flower primordium, due partial cell damage from the formation of ice crystals rather than a direct effect of the low temperature. Flower buds were formed in both the axillary buds of bourse shoots and terminal buds of spurs, but lower bud differentiation was observed for the terminal buds of spurs at rate of about 65% of total buds, which was directly related to the bud size and shoot diameter.