Cumulative fruit drop rate increased with fruit development
(Fig. 4). In the on-season longan, an intensive fruit drop occurred in
the early period of fruit development, within 20 days after anthesis
(400
D), and the increase in fruit drop rate was slow thereafter.
Changes in cumulative fruit drop in the off-season longan followed
a double sigmoid pattern with an intensive early fruit drop period
before 62 days after anthesis (458
◦
◦
◦
D) and a later one between 89
and 131 days (660 and 1072
D). The final cumulative fruit drop
rate was significantly higher in the off-season longan than in the
on-season longan (85.1% vs 69.8% and 89.5% vs 65.2% in 2004–2005
and 2007–2008, respectively). Fruit number per panicle at harvest
was 5.7 and 14.8 in the off-season longan and the on-season longan,
respectively, in 2004–2005, while it was 11.3 and 2.8, respectively,
in 2007–2008