Comparison of Four Strains of 'fuji' Apple

The purpose of this study was to evaluate four new strains of ‘Fuji’ for growth, production and fruit color. The strains were ‘‘Mira’’, ‘Sun’, ‘BC#2’ and ‘Yataka’. The trees were planted in 1998 on M.9 rootstocks in a randomized complete block with ten replications. At the end of the 2007 growing season the largest trees as measured by trunk cross sectional area were the ‘Mira’ and significantly larger than trees of ‘Sun’ or ‘Yataka’ strains. ‘Mira’ produced significantly greater cumulative number of fruit than trees of ‘Sun’ but not significantly greater than the other two strains. There was no significant difference in cumulative yield between strains. Average fruit weight for 1999 through 2007 was greatest for ‘BC#2’ followed by ‘Yataka’ and ‘Sun’ strains. Cumulative efficiency was greatest for the ‘Yataka’ strain and least for the ‘Mira’ strain. Color was measured in three seasons on the three later maturing strains. In 2001 there was no difference in L, chroma and hue angle values between the three strains. However, in 2004 and 2005 ‘Sun’ had significantly lower L and chroma values than those of ‘BC#2’ and similar values to ‘Mira’.