Improving the Prediction of Processing Bean Maturity Based on the Growing-degree Day Approach

Four snap bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars, Goldrush, Teseo, Labrador, and Flevoro, were grown in irrigated fields of southern Quebec between 1985 and 1998. Data on phenology collected from these fields were used to determine which base temperature would best predict time from sowing to maturity. The optimal base temperature was 0 °C for `Goldrush', `Teseo', and `Labrador' and 6.7 °C for `Flevoro'. Adjusting different base temperatures for intermediate developmental stages (emergence, flowering) did not improve the prediction model. All years for a given cultivar were then used to determine the base temperature with the lowest coefficient of variation (CV) for predicting the time from sowing to maturity. A common base temperature of 0 °C was selected for all cultivars, since `Flevoro' was not very sensitive to changes in base temperature. This method improved the prediction of maturity compared with the conventional computation growing-degree days (GDD) with a base of 10 °C. For the years and cultivars used in this study, calculating GDD with a base of 0 °C gave an overall prediction of maturity of 1.7, 1.5, 2.0, and 1.4 days based on average absolute differences, for `Flevoro', `Goldrush', `Teseo', and `Labrador', respectively.