Erez, A., Institute of Horticulture, Volcani Center, 50250 Bet-Dagan, Israel
Yablowitz, Z., Institute of Horticulture, Volcani Center, 50250 Bet-Dagan, Israel
Korcinski, R., Institute of Horticulture, Volcani Center, 50250 Bet-Dagan, Israel

Maturation of early peaches and nectarines before the fruit harvesting period offers high prices for the product. During late March and throughout April, the supply of such fruit is very low on the world market. Trials and commercial implementation of growing peaches and nectarines under greenhouse conditions during the last 8 years brought up specific problems related to response to climatic conditions. A detailed procedure for advancing maturation of such fruit crops has been developed which is based on the following elements: enhancing the natural chilling accumulation; using the dynamic model to monitor the chilling accumulation under field conditions; replacing part of the missing chilling by dormancy breaking chemicals; using UV transmitted polyethylene to enable the development of anthocyanin colors of fruits and preventing the rise of greenhouse temperature above specific thresholds during the different stages of flower and fruit development. By using this procedure, high yields of high quality fruits of peach and nectarines were harvested in late March.