COMPOUND FRUITS IN THE PEACH 

 RESULTING FROM MULTIPLE 



PISTILS 



R. E. Karper 

 Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station 



A RATHER remarkable case of 

 multiple fruits in the peach 

 occurred in the season of 1919 in 

 the experimental orchard of the Texas 

 Agricultural Experiment Substation 

 located at Lubbock, Texas. This 

 station is located on the Staked Plains 

 at an elevation of 3200 feet. Peaches 

 in this section yield well in years when 

 they escape the spring frosts, but most 

 varieties are usually killed in the bud 

 about three years out of every five. 



A crop of peaches was produced in 

 1919, which was the first full crop 

 since 1915. The seasons of 1917 and 

 1918 were extremely dry and very little 

 growth was made bv the trees. In the 

 fall of 1918 and spring of 1919 good 

 moisture conditions prevailed, induc- 

 ing a fall growth of fruiting wood, a 

 vigorous condition of the trees and the 

 setting of a superabundance of fruit in 

 the spring. 



SEPARATE PISTILS ON SAME FLOWER 



Such abnormalities as double or 

 two-lobed peaches resulting from com- 

 pound pistils occur quite frequently; 

 and even three lobed peaches have been 

 observed. In this case, however, we 

 have many simple pistils rather than a 

 compound pistil, the multiple fruits 

 produced running as high as quintuples 

 and occurring in large numbers. 



This phenomenon was first observed 

 soon after the blooming period and 

 before the corolla was shed. Each lobe 

 of the multiple fruit in the same flower 

 arose from a simple pistil and each lobe 

 or member of the multiple developed 

 its own pit. As the fruit developed 

 one or two of the lobes or fruits would 

 generally reach normal development, 

 the others, becoming abortive and 

 making very slow growth, would usu- 

 ally shrivel or dry up and drop, or be 



forced ofi^ the pedicel by the developmg 

 lobes. Many doublets and triplets 

 developed normally and produced per- 

 fect fruit, but none above triplets 

 developed perfectly mature fruits. 



In order to accommodate the mul- 

 tiple fruits the pedicel was often split 

 by the growing fruits or lobes crowded 

 together, each lobe adhering to its 

 portion of the pedicel. 



The accompanying data show the 

 percentage of single, double, triple, 

 quadruple, and quintuple fruits borne 

 from the same flower for each of the 

 bearing trees in the orchard, and give 

 an average for the trees of each variety. 



The impressive fact of these data 

 is that in some of the varieties the 

 bearing of single or normal fruits is 

 the exception rather than the rule. 

 The interesting point in the case of 

 multiples is that it was not a chance, or 

 isolated occurrence, but rather a gen- 

 eral condition existing in a large num- 

 ber of practically all varieties. 



HIGH PER CENT OF MULTIPLE FRUITS 



As previously stated, a full crop of 

 peaches had not been produced by 

 this orchard since 1915, but in 1918 

 the Mayflower, Salway, Alton, Krum- 

 mel and Japan Blood produced a me- 

 dium crop of fruit. It will be seen that 

 this year these varieties in every in- 

 stance bore comparatively few multiple 

 fruits and that the Krummel and Japan 

 blood bore only normal fruits. The 

 Hottes Elberta, which bore a few speci- 

 mens of fruit in 1918, had a low per 

 cent of multiples. The seedling tree 

 No. 121, which bore a light crop in 

 1918, produced forty-five per cent of 

 the fruit in 1919 as multiples, but none 

 above triples. With this exception 

 none of the trees which bore the pre- 

 vious year produced any abnormal 



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