PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE FRUITING ABILITY OF SOME SWEET CHERRY CULTIVARS IN A HIGH-DENSITY PLANTING SYSTEM

Training of sweet cherry trees with summer pruning in a high-density planting system allows the possibility of obtaining a high yield per hectare a few years after planting the orchard.
The result can be influenced by:-

1. the genetic characteristics of the cultivar (early or late development of flower buds on spurs), and

2. the rootstock.

Studies were conducted in a cherry orchard planted in an alluvial well-drained soil near Verona.
Seedlings of P. mahaleb and rooted cuttings of Colt were planted at a spacing of 5.0 x 1.20 m (1666 trees/ ha) in February 1981 and budded in August 1981 with the cultivars Adriana, Ferrovia, Mora di Cazzano, Moreau, Van, and with the cross Bargioni i. 123.

The trees were trained as free spindles in the first year; in the second year all the new shoots were cut in spring except the ones sprouting from the terminal buds of lateral branches and the central leader, leaving about 10–15 cm of their length.

Ten groups of 5 trees for each cultivar and rootstock were considered; the length of the central leader and lateral branches and the number of spurs with flower buds were ascertained each year on each tree in order to classify the cultivars on the basis of the total length of branches per hectare and number of flower buds per metre of branch and per hectare.

The cultivars Van and Ferrovia and the cross Bargioni i. 123 seem to be suitable for this high-density planting system.

III International Symposium on Research and Development on Orchard and Plantation Systems

G. Bargioni, G. Baroni, C. Madinelli

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1986.160.35