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In the absence of dwarfing rootstocks for apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.), techniques that reduce vegetative growth while enhancing fruit quality and yield are important in the orchard management system. Four year old mature apricot trees cultivars Nasiri, 35Shahroodi, Jahangiri, Shahroodi and Noori on apricot seedling rootstocks, planted at a density of 1250 trees ha-1 and grown at Tarbiat Modarres University (TMU) orchard were used. The effect of soil applied paclobutrazol (0.5 and 2 g tree-1 a.i.) on apricot trees was studied over three years period during 1998-2000 seasons. Treatment effects on vegetative and reproductive growth characteristics and the leaf nutrient status of the apricot trees were determined. Results indicated that paclobutrazol (PBZ) significantly reduced vege-tative growth during the experiment. The total pruning dry weight, shoot growth and trunk cross sectional area (TCSA) of treated trees were lower than those of the controls. Although, results showed that fruit load, crop density and total soluble solids (TSS) of fruits were not affected by applied treatments compared with the control. In addition, PBZ decreased nitrogen (N) concentration, but, phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and cal-cium (Ca) concentrations were not affected by the treatments. Chemical name of PBZ is: (2RS, 3RS)-1- (4-chlorophenyl)-4,4-dimethyl-2-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)pentan-3-ol.

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  The aim of this work was to study the effect of adding gellan gum and glycerol to film-forming solution on physical and mechanical properties of whey protein/gellan gum emulsion films and to produce edible coatings from whey and gellan gum and determine its effect on storage life of apricot. Whey protein coatings were prepared by dispersing 10% protein in distilled water; and plasticized with glycerol(Gly). Also gellan gum was added at different levels(0, 0/2, 0/4 and 0/6gr). Therefore apricots were dipped in this coatings solution for 1 minute at 20˚C and air dried. Coated fruits together with the uncoated fruits(control) were placed in open dishes and stored at 4˚C and 85% RH for 1 months. Weight loss, total soluble solid(TSS), titrable acidity, pH, skin color, flesh firmness and overall acceptability of coated apricots and control were measured weekly.  The result revealed that the weight loss and changes in the quality parameters were much lower in coated apricots as compared with those. Color changes were also studied using a Hunter lab colorimeter. Finally results showed that the applications of whey coating increased overall acceptability, quality and storage life of apricot, while decreased its weight loss during storage. The emulsion films were evaluated for physical and mechanical properties. Increasing the level of gellan gum in the films led to increase in Modulus(EM) and Tensile Strength(TS) but increasing gum to 0/6gr made less increase in Modulus(EM) and Tensile Strength(TS). About Elongation(EL), was observed increase too but in films that produced with 0/4gr gum, there was a slight decrease.

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Morphological and pomological features were studied for two consecutive years in wild apricot seedlings grown under Macedonian environmental conditions. The population comprised of 19 seedlings, i.e. genotypes, that showed notable fruit and tree traits. Their flowering time and desirable fruit quality features were determined in comparison with ‘Hungarian Best’. In all genotypes, flowering occurred two days earlier than the control in both years, with the exception of end of flowering in the second year, whereas harvest time was later in seven genotypes than in ‘Hungarian Best’. Genotypes showed a range of 23.40±1.62 g to 89.29±2.98 g for fruit weight, 1.81±0.13 to 4.85±0.17 g for stone weight, 11.70±0.41 to14.40±0.55 ºBrix for soluble solids, and 0.89±0.01 to1.89±0.02% for titratable acidity. Soluble solids was higher than 12% in eighteen genotypes. The pH ranged between 3.90±0.06 and 4.70±0.08. The contents of reducing sugars, sucrose, and total sugars ranged from 8.49±0.10 to 10.39±0.66%, 0.66±0.01 to 1.20±0.05%, and 9.34±0.19 to 11.36±0.19%, respectively. The genotypes were grouped into four clusters according to their potential. A high correlation was found among some quality traits. Using a principal component analysis, apricot genotypes were segregated into groups with similar physical and chemical features. These relationships may help in selection of a set of genotypes with better fruit quality performances, which, in our study, wre observed in DL-1/1/04, DL-1/2/03, D-1/04, and K-5/04. Based on this evaluation, 19 outstanding genotypes were pre-selected from the initial breeding population for further studies.

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After peaches and plums, apricots are the third most important product of stone fruits, which is popular among consumers because of having high levels of antioxidants. But it is a climacteric and perishable fruit. Using of essential oils in maintaining the quality of fruits and vegetables has a high potential as an alternative to artificial preservatives dangerous to health. Recent advances in nanotechnology, and particularly nano encapsulation of essential oils, is able to overcome existing difficulties.so a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design on apricots in three replications to investigate the effect of nano encapsulated rosemary on physico-chemical properties of fruit during storage.
Results showed the amount of fresh and dry weight as well as the percentage of dry matter of fruit decreased during storage and it was more in control fruits than treated ones. The amount of carotenoids and anthocyanins increased rapidly in control fruits compared to treated fruits from the 20th day of storage. the highest amount of phenols are related to harvest day and had a decreasing trend until the end of the storage, so that fruits treated with 1000 mg / L nano encapsulated rosemary had more phenol than the control and other treatments. They also had the highest amount of vitamin C and total carbohydrates at the end of storage, despite their decreasing trend. Fruits treated with rosemary nano encapsulated rosemary had higher antioxidant activity than control at the end of storage. During storage the amount of hydrogen peroxide and the activity of enzymes guaiacol peroxidase and superoxide dismutase increased. At the end of storage period, fruits treated with 1000 mg / L nano encapsulated rosemary had the lowest amount of hydrogen peroxide and the highest activity of enzymes guaiacol peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, while this trend was opposite in controls.

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In this study some physical and geometrical properties of 11 superior apricot genotypes were determined. These properties such as respiration rate, fruit dimensions, perimeter, surface area, volume, compact factor, geometric mean diameter, projected area, shape factor, circularity, length to width ratio, length to thickness ratio, and length to mass ratio were measured at harvesting moisture content ranging from 75.19 to 87.67 %. Then the correlation among average values of the attributes was performed and the genotypes were classified using principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that all the genotypes had significant differences in terms of all the studied attributes (P<0.01). There was a significant and positive correlation between fruit length and weight and fruit length and moisture content. Fruit shape factor and compression factor showed a positive and significant correlation, while these attributes had negative and significant correlations with circularity. This study showed that Iranian apricot genotypes could be discriminated by differences in their geometrical characteristics using principal component analysis. Based on the PCA results, the first two components account for the most of the variation in the data (91%) and five distinct groups were observed. Overall, the results of this study can be beneficial for the design of equipment for harvesting, transportation, separating, packaging, and processing of apricot fruit.
 

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