Abstract:

Dongshan town in Wuzhong District of Suzhou is one of the four traditional loquat production areas in China, and loquat is an important cash crop in Wuzhong District. However, the annual yield of loquat is unstable because its growth and development are easily affected by meteorological conditions. Therefore, using meteorological data to analyze the influence of meteorological conditions on loquat is conducive to the scientific development of loquat industry and the promotion of meteorological services for agriculture. Based on the method of mathematical statistics, this paper analyzed the loquat yield and meteorological conditions from 2019 to 2021 in Wuzhong. The results showed that the overall meteorological conditions were relatively suitable for loquat growth from 2019 to 2021, but disastrous weather also existed at the same time. The main adverse meteorological conditions of loquat in 2019 were abnormally less sunshine at florescence and young fruit stage, excessive precipitation at florescence, and low temperature and the snow. The main adverse meteorological condition in 2020 was more sunshine in fruit expansion stage. In 2021, the main adverse meteorological conditions were low temperature and two cold wave processes at florescence and young fruit stage of loquat. According to loquat growth and yield at the same time, the main cause of blossom blight was continuous rainy days during flowering period, which could be characterized by the abnormally more precipitation and less sunshine. The anomaly percentage of sunshine less than -50% in two periods of ten days could be taken as the threshold value of loquat blossom blight. In addition, the low temperature, rain and snow caused by the cold wave process were the main reasons of the freezing damage on loquat flowers and corky bark on young fruits in 2021.

Key words: Dongshan loquat, the growth period of loquat, meteorological condition evaluation, loquat blossom blight, loquat sunburn, freezing damage