Articles
Upright training system for blueberry
Article number
1357_48
Pages
335 – 342
Language
English
Abstract
The fresh blueberry market requires manually picked fruit and careful handling in production.
In support of speeding up the harvest process and improve the fruit quality we designed an innovative upright training system for blueberry, modifying the bush native type of the plant architecture.
The trial was set up in 2016 using three-year-old plants of Coville and Blueray cultivars planted in 50-L pots with peat, sawdust and perlite in equal parts.
In the spring, plants were special pruned to obtain from bushes, one, two and three vertical axes per plant and container.
For the upright conducted blueberry plants, a training system with four wires distanced at 40 cm and individual bamboo sticks to support the stems was provided.
During 2016-2019, yield and biometric characteristics were evaluated for all four variants.
The experiment revealed a very good behaviour of blueberry in the vertical training system.
The height of the cordons stabilizes around 165 cm and the yield was higher as the number of axes increased.
Even though the total production was slightly better in bush compared to the vertical axis systems, the quality of the fruits in terms of size and colour was greater in the vertical training system.
The plants conducted with one axis registered an average yield for the first harvests of 1.00 kg plant‑1, the ones with two vertical axes of 1.16 kg plant‑1, and the plants with three axes 1.18 kg plant‑1. The control bush-shaped blueberry plants yielded an average of 1.21 kg plant‑1. Besides fruit appearance, the upright training system for blueberry comes with several other advantages such as compact ripening of the fruit, easy picking and pruning, better light valorisation and land use for small farm units.
In support of speeding up the harvest process and improve the fruit quality we designed an innovative upright training system for blueberry, modifying the bush native type of the plant architecture.
The trial was set up in 2016 using three-year-old plants of Coville and Blueray cultivars planted in 50-L pots with peat, sawdust and perlite in equal parts.
In the spring, plants were special pruned to obtain from bushes, one, two and three vertical axes per plant and container.
For the upright conducted blueberry plants, a training system with four wires distanced at 40 cm and individual bamboo sticks to support the stems was provided.
During 2016-2019, yield and biometric characteristics were evaluated for all four variants.
The experiment revealed a very good behaviour of blueberry in the vertical training system.
The height of the cordons stabilizes around 165 cm and the yield was higher as the number of axes increased.
Even though the total production was slightly better in bush compared to the vertical axis systems, the quality of the fruits in terms of size and colour was greater in the vertical training system.
The plants conducted with one axis registered an average yield for the first harvests of 1.00 kg plant‑1, the ones with two vertical axes of 1.16 kg plant‑1, and the plants with three axes 1.18 kg plant‑1. The control bush-shaped blueberry plants yielded an average of 1.21 kg plant‑1. Besides fruit appearance, the upright training system for blueberry comes with several other advantages such as compact ripening of the fruit, easy picking and pruning, better light valorisation and land use for small farm units.
Publication
Authors
A. Asănică, F. Stănică, A. Iacob, D. Popescu, M. Ungurenuș
Keywords
Vaccinium corymbosum L., vertical axes, cordons, trellising, high-density, pots
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