STRIP PEAR ORCHARD DESIGN

In the spring of 1985, at the Faculty farm near Skopje, a 16-year-old pear orchard on wild pear rootstock was thinned.
Every third row was removed to obtain double row strips 4.5–9 x 3.5 m.
The 9 m space was then used for different field and fodder crops.

After thinning, the trees were better illuminated and aerated, and the expenses of protection, fertilization, irrigation, pruning, and soil management were rapidly reduced.
The yield per tree increased, while per hectare decreased by about 14%, although the fruit quality and price are higher.
The thinned orchard yielded 2.13 times higher profit per hectare than the unthinned.
This reconstruction of orchard design into strips has in addition to economic also biological as well as ecological justification.

VI International Symposium on Pear Growing

B. Ristevski

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.367.33