EFFECTS OF BETWEEN-ROW SPACING AND TRAINING METHOD ON YIELD AND PLANT CHARACTERISTICS OF MECHANICALLY HARVESTED ‘MEEKER’ RED RASPBERRY

Red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L) cv Meeker was grown in two adjacent experiments and trained as 1) pruned upright bundles, 2) individually pruned and woven canes, or 3) unpruned looped bundles all secured to wires 1.5 m high.
In one experiment rows were spaced 3 m apart (standard); in the other, rows were alternately spaced 1.5 m and 3 m apart (modified). Fruit was harvested with a Littau mechanical harvester.

There were large differences in yield and growth characteristics among years, but few consistent differences due to training system.
In the standard planting, a significant yield difference occurred in only one of three years due to low yield in woven plots.

Of all fruit and cane measurements taken, cane density was most closely correlated with yield.

The average percentage of buds that grew and produced fruiting laterals in the mid-section of woven canes varied from 60 percent in 1983 to 86 percent in 1985. In 1984, when counts were taken in both plantings and all training systems, average percentage of buds producing fruiting laterals ranged from 47 to 75. Fruit drop in 1984 averaged 29 percent in the standard planting and 26 percent in the modified planting with no differences attributable to training method.

IV International Rubus and Ribes Symposium

Lloyd W. Martin, E. Nelson

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1986.183.24