STUDY OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN SOME PLUM GENOTYPES IN THE PEDOCLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF PITEȘTI-MĂRĂCINENI

During 2020 – 2022, observations and determinations regarding the growth and fruiting at 25 plum genotypes from the Pomological Collection of RIFG Pitesti - Mărăcineni were carried out in order to identify the phenological and morphological diversity, useful to the breeding program. The variability of phenological and morphological characters has a strong genetic determinism, in correlation with the evolution of pedoclimatic conditions. In the context of climatic changes, it has been essential to understand the mechanism of interaction between the genes involved in manifesting characters and traits responsible for the adaptability and productivity of the variety and the environmental conditions. The evaluation was carried out on 100 trees (4 trees/genotype), analyzing 3,000 leaves of leaves, fruits, shoots and flowers, the working volume being over 15,000 measurements and observations. Plum is a vigorous or semi-vigorous species, but 'Centenar' and 'Zamfira' show a fairly clear difference in vigor compared to the other varieties, and this can be an advantage for these varieties when used in high-density orchards. The beginning of flowering started early in the case of two varieties ('Lama' and 'Scolduș'), medium and late for most varieties and very late for 'Grase românești', 'Vinete românești' and 'Vinete românești cl. 300', while beginning of fruit ripening occurred very early for 'Early Rivers', early in the case of 7 varieties ('Centenar', 'Tita', etc.), medium or late for 14 varieties ('Anna Spath', 'Black Diamond', 'Stanley' etc.) and very late in 'Haganta', 'Topend' and 'Renclod Violet'. Also, most of the selected CPVO descriptors were polymorphic and showed more than two phenotypes a high diversity was observed between characters regarding the flower, leaf, shoots and tree habit of the 25 studied genotypes, proving that each of them presents special characters that can be useful in future breeding programs.