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BACKGROUND: The fruit quality and flowering characteristics of Kiwifruit (A. deliciosa cv. Hayward) in the following year is known to be affected by the extent and timing of defoliation of the current year. In korea, the production of kiwi, which is a perennial, straggling deciduous warm-temperate fruit, is often restricted by wind damage due to typhoons resulting to defoliation at the middle season of its growing period. In this paper, we report the effect of the different timing of defoliation and severities at the current season to the kiwifruit quality. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty seven-year-old 'Hayward' trees grown under polyethylene film rain-shelter were defoliated in different days from August to September at seven day-intervals. In each day, 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of leaves were removed from the trees. Fruits from each treatment were classified into four floating types (L: lying in bottom, S: standing on bottom, F: floating and SF: floating at the surface of water) by submerging them into tap water. Defoliation of kiwifruit trees in August and September caused air holes in locules of inner pericarp. Increased number of air hole in locules of a fruit was observed in floating types F and SF, and most of the air holes were located in stem end. The defoliation of trees in August significantly reduced the ratio of L-floating type fruits, which have the least number of locule air holes. The extent of defoliation also affected the distribution of the four types, the more leaves removed, the less L-floating type fruits harvested. The weight of fruits from trees defoliated in August was lower than that of fruits from September. Soluble solids content decreased as the number of locule air holes increased. Negative correlations were observed between the extent of defoliation and the weight and soluble solids content of fruits. CONCLUSION: Early defoliation effect on kiwifruit locule air hole occurrence and fruit quality were more severe in August than in September. And also if the defoliation severity is over 25%, severe fruit quality reduction expected to happen due to increase of fruit locule air hole in the inner pericarp.

The soil moisture has an important effect on growth and development of highbush blueberry (HB), mainly because the root system, devoid of root hairs, is superficial. Moreover, the texture and organic matter content of Korean soil is different from the main producing counties, such as USA and Canada. To facilitate the growth and development of HB and long-term maintenance of productivity, the research related to soil moisture condition in Korea should be the priority. This study was performed to investigate the growth properties of the HB in various soil moisture conditions in order to determine the irrigation trigger point and optimum soil water potential. The texture of soil used in this experiment was loam. For the experiments, the soil was mixed with peatmoss at a rates 30% (v/v). Irrigation was scheduled at -3, -4, -5, -8, -15 and -22 kPa soil water potential then investigated leaf macronutrient, bush growth, and fruit properties. The leaf K content of HB showed the same trend in the soil water potential, but Leaf P and Mg content was highest in -5 and -22 kPa, respectively. The productivity and growth amount of HB showed the peak at the range of -4~-8 kPa as normal distribution pattern, and greatly decreased at above -15 kPa. Total dry weight and Cane diameter were highest at -4 kPa, plant width, fruit weight and yield were highest at -5 kPa, and plant height, cane number and shoot tension were highest at -8 kPa. Soluble solids content showed same trend in the soil water potential, but titratable acidity, anthocyanins and total polyphenols were not significantly different. Therefore, the optimal soil water potential for the development and a maximum production of HB were a range of -4~-8 kPa, and the recommended ideal irrigation trigger point was within -15 kPa.