Articles
THE INTERNATIONAL PLANTING SYSTEMS TRIAL
Article number
243_29
Pages
231 – 242
Language
Abstract
A comparison of five intensive planting systems of Golden Delicious and Gloster 69 on M.9 and M.27 rootstocks, using trees from a common nursery, was planted in the spring of 1981 and has been maintained at five sites in W. Europe.
Mean yields over all systems and sites were disappointing in the second year at 11 t/ha for Golden Delicious and 9 t/ha for Gloster 69, partly due to poor initial tree quality; but mean yields by the third year had risen to 38 and 28 t/ha respectively.
In years five to seven both scion varieties gave mean yields of approximately 50 t/ha, with Golden Delicious showing a greater tendency towards biennial bearing.
Higher tree densities gave significantly higher yields/ha in the second year but differences were much smaller in later years.
The three-row North Holland spindles, with 34% higher tree density than the single-row spindles, gave a mean increase of 8% in accumulated yield from years two to seven.
The double-row spindles gave no yield advantage over the single-row spindles at the same density, indeed their accumulated yields were slightly down on those for the single-rows for both varieties.
The very high density systems on M.27 gave the fastest build-up of yield and the highest yields per ha but again these advantages were much reduced in later years.
The mini-bush trees on M.27, with their harder pruning at planting, initially gave 30% lower yields than the full-field spindles but the accumulated yields showed only a 13% decrease.
Although overall accumulated yields have been similar at Bologna and East Malling, fruit size has been much larger at Bologna.
This fruit size improvement at Bologna is a genuine site difference independent of crop load.
Differences in skin finish between the systems were generally small but where growth was strong, colour was significantly poorer on the three-row system but better on the trees on M.27 than on the single-row spindles on M.9. Analysis of the accumulated yields showed highly significant interactions (P<0.001) between site x system, cultivar x system and site x cultivar x system, but these interactions were almost entirely due to the systems on M.27; when these were eliminated from the analysis the interactions became non-significant.
Mean yields over all systems and sites were disappointing in the second year at 11 t/ha for Golden Delicious and 9 t/ha for Gloster 69, partly due to poor initial tree quality; but mean yields by the third year had risen to 38 and 28 t/ha respectively.
In years five to seven both scion varieties gave mean yields of approximately 50 t/ha, with Golden Delicious showing a greater tendency towards biennial bearing.
Higher tree densities gave significantly higher yields/ha in the second year but differences were much smaller in later years.
The three-row North Holland spindles, with 34% higher tree density than the single-row spindles, gave a mean increase of 8% in accumulated yield from years two to seven.
The double-row spindles gave no yield advantage over the single-row spindles at the same density, indeed their accumulated yields were slightly down on those for the single-rows for both varieties.
The very high density systems on M.27 gave the fastest build-up of yield and the highest yields per ha but again these advantages were much reduced in later years.
The mini-bush trees on M.27, with their harder pruning at planting, initially gave 30% lower yields than the full-field spindles but the accumulated yields showed only a 13% decrease.
Although overall accumulated yields have been similar at Bologna and East Malling, fruit size has been much larger at Bologna.
This fruit size improvement at Bologna is a genuine site difference independent of crop load.
Differences in skin finish between the systems were generally small but where growth was strong, colour was significantly poorer on the three-row system but better on the trees on M.27 than on the single-row spindles on M.9. Analysis of the accumulated yields showed highly significant interactions (P<0.001) between site x system, cultivar x system and site x cultivar x system, but these interactions were almost entirely due to the systems on M.27; when these were eliminated from the analysis the interactions became non-significant.
Publication
Authors
J.W. Palmer, S. Sansavini, F. Winter, C. Bünemann, P.S. Wagenmakers
Keywords
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