pruning and limb orientation on yield, fruit size, and quality of vigorous ‘Delicious’ apple trees. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 108:630- 633. 15. Proctor, J.T.A. and E.C. Lougheed. 1976. The effect of covering apples during development. HortScience 11:108. 16. Robinson, T.L., E.J. Seeley, and B.H. Barritt. 1983. Effect of light environment and spur age on ‘Delicious’ apple fruit size and quality. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 108:885-891. 17. Rom, C.R. 1984. The role of spur leaves: the influence of light environment and cytokinins. PhD. Diss., Ohio State Univ., Co- lumbus. 18. Seeley, E.J., W.C. Micke, and R. Kammereck. 1980. ‘Deli- cious’ apple fruit size and quality as influenced by radiant flux density in the immediate growing environment. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 105:645-657. 19. Sharma, D.P., D.C. Ferree, and F.O. Hartman. 1977. Effect of some soil applied herbicides on net photosynthesis and growth of apple trees. HortScience 12:153-154. 20. Thome, J.H. and H.R. Roller. 1974. The influence of assimilate demand on photosynthesis diffusive resistances, translocation and carbohydrate levels of soybean leaves. Plant Physiol. 54:201- 207. 21. Watson, R.L., J.J. Landsberg, and M.R. Thorpe. 1978. Photo- synthetic characteristics of the leaves of ‘Golden Delicious’ apple trees. Plant Cell Env. 1:51-58. 22. Webster, D.H. and A.D. Crowe. 1971. Effect of shade treat- ments on ‘McIntosh’ apple shape. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 96:292- 294. J. Amer . Soc . Hort . Sci . 111 (3):356—360. 1986. Factors Accounting for the Within-tree Variation of Fruit Quality in Sweet Cherries K. D. Patten*1 and M.E. Patterson Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6414 E.L. Proebsting Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, Washington State University, Prosser, WA 99350 Additional index words. Prunus avium, anthesis, flower size, fruit maturity Abstract. Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) flower and pistil weight at anthesis decreased at late bloom times. Fruit from early-opening flowers remained larger through harvest and developed higher soluble solids and color than fruit from flowers than opened later. Time of anthesis was delayed and fruit color and soluble solids decreased linearly as flower or fruit location progressed basipetally on one- and 2-year-old wood. Maturity and quality are highly variable within and between sweet cherry trees. Exposure to light (14), tree crop load (16), and branch fruit-to-leaf ratio (8) all affect fruit quality. How- ever, not all the variability in cherry quality can be accounted for by these factors. Research on other variables affecting tree fruit quality has been confined mostly to apples. In apples, the largest and highest-quality fruit come from early-opened or pollinated blossoms (13, 19), the first (terminal) bloom within a cluster (20), the youngest spurs (10, 18), and largest fruit at an early reference date (3). Physiological maturity is more advanced for fruit from interior rather than exterior positions of the tree (9, 11) or near a “ ring scar” (bud scale scar) (6). The objectives of this study were to determine the relation- ships of 1) bloom time of individual flowers to flower and fruit quality, 2) location of inflorescence to time of anthesis and fruit quality, and 3) early fruit size to fruit quality. Materials and Methods Time of anthesis Expt. 1. The time of anthesis for individual flowers in dif- Received for publication 16 May 1985. Scientific Paper No. 7142, College of Agriculture Research Center, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA 99164- 6414. The cost of publishing this paper was defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. Under postal regulations, this paper therefore must be hereby marked advertisement solely to indicate this fact. 1Present address: Texas A&M Univ. Agricultural Research and Extension Cen- ter, Drawer E, Overton, TX 75684. ferent positions on one- and 2-year-old wood was measured in 1982 by grouping flower buds into 3 stages of development: open cluster, first white, or full bloom (2). After about 50% anthesis had occurred on the trees, the number of flower buds in each category were counted at 6 positions: the basal bud on one-year-old wood and the first 5 spurs (basipetal direction) on 2-year-old wood. Counts were made on 8-year-old ‘Bing’ trees. Fig. 1. Relationship between the stage of bud development of ‘Bing’ sweet cherries and their location on one- and 2-year-old wood. (0 denotes basal buds on one-year-old wood, 1-5 denotes the spur position below the first ring scar). Significant (5% level) linear and cubic trend analysis for full bloom and open cluster, and first white, respectively. Orthongonal analysis of data performed on arcsin square- root transformations. 356 J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 111(3):356-360. 1986.