Articles
PERFORMANCE IN THE EARLY PRODUCTION YEARS OF TWO ORGANIC ORCHARDS ESTABLISHED BY DIFFERENT METHODS: NEWLY-PLANTED AND TOP-GRAFTED
Article number
1001_17
Pages
161 – 165
Language
English
Abstract
The OrganicA Project has been evaluating the performance of five apple (Malus ×domestica) cultivars, Ginger Gold, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Macoun, and Zestar! under two orchard establishment methods used to change cultivars since 2006: top-grafting, and establishing a new orchard with nursery trees on dwarf rootstock.
The top-grafted orchard, Orchard 2, was originally planted in 1988 with the cultivars Liberty and McIntosh on M.26 rootstock on free standing trees at a density of 716 trees ha-1. In 2006, the orchard was grafted to the five new cultivars.
The new orchard, Orchard 1, was planted in 2006 in a completely randomized design with 15 three-tree replicates per cultivar.
Planting stock was two year-old nursery trees on B.9 rootstock, except Honeycrisp, which was on M.26, planted at a density of 1,433 trees ha-1 and supported by a 2.4 m tall single-wire trellis.
Orchard 2 used a randomized complete block design with a total of eight and eleven replications in block 1 and block 2, respectively.
The blocks relate to the original cultivar (i.e., Liberty = block 1, McIntosh = block 2) which is now the interstem of each tree.
In orchard 1, results indicate that Ginger Gold generally exhibited better growth and fruit yield than the other cultivars, while Liberty had the smallest trees in the study.
For Orchard 2, tree survival was poorest for Macoun and Zestar!, while Ginger Gold showed increased fruit yield over Liberty and Macoun. Results suggest top-grafting may be an economical and sustainable technique to change existing apple cultivars, but success of this technique appears to be cultivar-dependent.
The top-grafted orchard, Orchard 2, was originally planted in 1988 with the cultivars Liberty and McIntosh on M.26 rootstock on free standing trees at a density of 716 trees ha-1. In 2006, the orchard was grafted to the five new cultivars.
The new orchard, Orchard 1, was planted in 2006 in a completely randomized design with 15 three-tree replicates per cultivar.
Planting stock was two year-old nursery trees on B.9 rootstock, except Honeycrisp, which was on M.26, planted at a density of 1,433 trees ha-1 and supported by a 2.4 m tall single-wire trellis.
Orchard 2 used a randomized complete block design with a total of eight and eleven replications in block 1 and block 2, respectively.
The blocks relate to the original cultivar (i.e., Liberty = block 1, McIntosh = block 2) which is now the interstem of each tree.
In orchard 1, results indicate that Ginger Gold generally exhibited better growth and fruit yield than the other cultivars, while Liberty had the smallest trees in the study.
For Orchard 2, tree survival was poorest for Macoun and Zestar!, while Ginger Gold showed increased fruit yield over Liberty and Macoun. Results suggest top-grafting may be an economical and sustainable technique to change existing apple cultivars, but success of this technique appears to be cultivar-dependent.
Publication
Authors
M.E. Garcia, R.E. Moran, L.P. Berkett, T.L. Bradshaw, H.M. Darby , S.L. Kingsley-Richards, R.L. Parsons
Keywords
apple, ‘Ginger Gold’, ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Macoun’, top-grafting, ‘Zestar!’
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