THE EFFECT OF PRUNING AND TRAINING ON MACHINE HARVEST EFFICIENCY OF ‘MEEKER’ RED RASPBERRY

Cane density (5, 10 or 15 canes/hill) in a hill system with canes topped at 2 m or the entire cane length retained and looped was compared to a 15 cm and 30 cm wide hedgerow (canes topped at 2 m) in ‘Meeker’ red raspberry from 1995–97. Plots were harvested with a Littau rotary machine.
Looped canes had 0.9 m longer canes on average than those topped.
Within the hill system, total yield increased with cane density in all years.
Looped treatments produced a higher yield/plot than topped treatments in all years except 1996 when looped canes had greater winter injury than topped canes resulting in a nonsignificant yield difference.
Berry mass was from 5.4 to 9.7% smaller on looped than on topped canes.
Hedgerow systems had a lower yield than hill systems in 1996, but a higher yield in 1997. Losses to machine harvest were not affected by pruning (cane density or topping) or production system (hill system or hedgerow). Losses were 16.2% of total yield in 1997 with 35% of the losses occurring between harvests that were on 2-day intervals.

VII International Symposium on Rubus and Ribes

B. Strik, H. Cahn

Rubus idaeus, topping, arc cane training, looping, hedgerow, hill system, machine harvest losses, cane density

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1999.505.13