Thinning of Organic Apple Production with Potassic Soap and Calcium Polysulfide at the North of Spain.

Asturias, in the North West coast of Spain, is a region with old tradition at cultivation of apple and its transformation to cider. The production of apple is mainly done under traditional uses and semi-extensive or semi-intensive system and with local cultivars. Thinning strategy is little practiced and the biennial bearing cycle is one of the main problems for the farmers. The production of apple under organic techniques in Asturias is still limited but increasing. Since 2005, experiments have been conducted on several cultivars (‘Raxao’, ‘Xuanina’ and ‘Gold-Rush’) to evaluate the effects of Potassic Soap (with or without olive oil) and Calcium Polysulfide as thinning products. We present here the first promising results of these experiments. With different concentrations of both products we have increased the apple production of two cultivars for the period 2006- 2007. There were positive effects on the vegetative growth of the trees and on the quality of apples. In the spring 2007 we initiated new experiments with other cultivars (‘Durona de Tresali’, ‘Solarina’, ‘Raxao’, ‘Regona’) in order to confirm our results. The new experiments also include the comparison of their effects with those of commonly used chemical products and with those of manual thinning techniques

Contribución a la palinologia de Liliaceae en Andalucia Occidental (excepto subfamilias Scilloideae y Allioideae)

Se estudia la morfología del polen de 23 especies de Liliaceae en Andalucía Occidental, pertenecientes a los géneros Asphodelus, Anthericum, Simethis, Aphyllanthes, Colchicum, Merendera, Gagea, Tulipa, Fri tillaría, Polygonatum, Asparagus, Ruscus y Smilax. Por los caracteres polinices analizados se reconocen 14 tipos diferentes. Palinológicamente está justificada la separación de Smilacoideae como familia independiente, pero no se justifica la separación de Liliaceae y Amaryllidaceae.The pollen morphology of 23 species of Liliaceae from W. Andalucía belonging to the genera Asphodelus, Anthericum, Simethis, Aphyllanthes, Colchicum , Merendera, Gagea, Tulipa, Fritillaria, Polygonatum, Asparagus, Ruscus and Smilax have been studied. Fourteen types of pollen grains have been found, which are more or less in accordance with the accepted genera. The palynological data agree with the separation o f Smilacoideae as a different family. The traditional separation of Liliaceae and Amaryllidaceae is not justificd palynologically