EFFECT OF CROP DENSITY ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH, FLOWERING, FRUIT SIZE, AND YIELD IN ‘NIJISSEIKI’ PEAR TREES

Fruitlets of ‘Nijisseiki’ pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) on P. betulaefolia rootstock were thinned to crop density (CD) of 3–16 fruit-cm^-2 trunk cross-sectional area (TCSA) in 1986 and 1–7 fruit-cm^-2 TCSA in 1987. Increases in CD reduced trunk growth, area, and weight of non-fruiting spur leaves, and mean, total length, and number of terminal shoots.
Decreasing CD increased fruit weight but decreased yield.
Percent of fruit with larger diameter increased between a CD of 3 and 7 fruit.cm^-2 but remained constant from 1 to 3 fruit-cm^-2 in 1987. Calculated leaf number per fruit at CD 3 was 44. There was no effect of CD levels on return bloom.

VI International Symposium on Pear Growing

S. Gu, Porter B. Lombard

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.367.37