COMPARISON OF THE MODIFIED SPANISH BUSH AND THE TALL SPINDLE CHERRY PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

A replicated field planting of 3 cherry varieties (‘Rainer’, ‘Lapins’, and ‘Sweet¬heart’) on Gi.5 or Gi.6 rootstocks was established at Geneva, NY in 2008. Each cultivar was planted at 2 densities (1,389 or 2,778 trees/ha) and trained either as a Modified Spanish Bush or as a Tall Spindle.
Two of the 3 replicates were covered by a high tunnel and 1 replicate was left uncovered.
The Modified Spanish Bush tree was developed by repeated heading of the tree to produce a tree with 10 upright shoots for the 1 m spacing and 20 shoots for the 2 m spacing.
The Tall Spindle system was developed by heading the leader at 120 cm at planting and developing a tall tree (3.5 m) with 15-18 lateral shoots along the trunk using bud removal.
Yield in year 3 was highest for the Tall Spindle system but in year 4 the modified Spanish Bush system had similar yield while in year 5 the Tall Spindle had the highest yield reaching 25 t/ha.
There was significant yield benefit to higher planting densities (1 m vs. 2 m) with the Tall Spindle system but little benefit to high planting densities with the Modified Spanish Bush.
Cumulative yield over the first 5 years was highest for the Tall Spindle at the 1m spacing (36 t/ha) while the lower density Tall Spindle (2 m spacing) and the two densities of the Modified Spanish Bush system had lower yield (~25 t/ha). Gi.5 rootstock produced higher yields and higher cumulative crop value than G.6. High tunnels increased yield, gave good control of fruit cracking and increased crop value, but not yet enough to pay for the tunnel after 3 cropping seasons.

X International Symposium on Integrating Canopy, Rootstock and Environmental Physiology in Orchard Systems

T.L. Robinson, L.I. Dominguez

Prunus avium, trunk cross-sectional area, canopy volume, yield, fruit cracking, fruit soluble solids

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1058.3