Articles
THE EFFECTS OF BENDING ON THE GROWTH AND FRUIT PRODUCTION OF INRA FERCER® SWEET CHERRY
Unlike pome fruit species such as the apple, where bending is included in the training method, such as the Lespinasse’s ‘Solaxe’ method, timing and degree of bending are more critical on the cherry.
To evaluate whether integrating such a technique into canopy management is useful, we need more accurate knowledge of the morphological and agronomic responses of bending cherry shoots over several years.
In this paper, we present some preliminary results on shoot vigour, branching and fruit production after the first year of treatment.
The experiment was carried out on the INRA Fercer® cultivar grafted on the dwarfing rootstock Tabel® Edabriz, which produces high-quality fruit but usually presents a low fruit-set.
Trees were planted in 1994 and trained according to the ‘Solaxe’ method.
Tree spacing was 5 m between the rows and 2 m within the row.
In spring 1995, 85 one-year-old orthotropic branches of approximately the same length and basal diameter were chosen.
Forty two were bent below the horizontal.
The others were left in their natural position.
In 1996, each one-year-old spur and shoot was characterised by its length, number of nodes, diameter, number of inflorescences and flowers, and by the number and weight of fruit at commercial harvest.
Comparing the two types of branch orientation shows that bending reduced leader shoot vigor and induced the growth of lateral shoots of moderate vigour under the terminal bud.
In parallel, the number of flower buds, flowers per flower bud and, in general terms, fruit set were increased.
Although mean fruit weight was not changed by bending, the final crop load was 74% higher for bent branches than for orthotropic ones.