Summary: The objective of this project was to further understand the root causes of biennial bearing by tracking the development of potential flower buds from early in the season through to dormancy. Bourse buds were selected with different histories: • vegetative • flowering but not fruiting • fruiting Our goal was to determine whether buds on vegetative spurs differed from those that flowered but did not set fruit, and whether in turn these differed from spurs that carried fruit. We were interested to learn not only whether spur history affected whether a flower developed, but how well developed the flower was by the end of the season. More highly differentiated buds are likely to result in larger fruit the following year.
