COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO TRAINING SYSTEMS IN PEACH PROTECTED CULTURE IN SICILY

The experiment was sited at the agricultural farm “Samuele” belonging to the Musso brothers and located in the south-eastern coast of Sicily.
Two different training systems, “open-little vase” and “transversal Y”, were compared in protected culture with the aim to improve agro-pomological and commercial characteristics of the peach cultivar ‘Maravilha’. Trees of ‘GF677’ rootstocks, budded in September 1990, were planted in January 1991 and trained to open-little vase and tranversal Y at a spacing of 2 x 1 m (5,000 plants/ha) and 3 x 1 m (3,330 plants/ha), respectively.
The experimental design followed a fully random model.
Plant protection was performed using “EVA” plastic film (0.18 mm). Evaluation over 4 years spanning 1992–1995 included observations of 15 trees per treatment.
The following characteristics were recorded: index of fertility, time and entity of flowering, fruit set, ripening time, productivity, fruit characteristics.

In the open-little vase training system plants showed a major vegetative growth, thus needing a more intense pruning.
Ripening time was earlier in the open-little vase than in the transversal Y system training.
Mean tree production per hectare and mean fruit weight were consistently higher in the open-little vase training system, resulting in a average of 33.5 t/ha and 103 g/fruit, compared to 25 t/ha and 94 g/fruit obtained in the transversal Y training system.

XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 3: Culture Techniques with Special Emphasis on Environmental Implications, Disease, Pest Control and Integrated Pest Strategies

E. Bellini, D. Falqui, O. Musso

Prunus persica, ‘Maravilha’ peach cultivar, open-little vase, trasversal Y, high density plantation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.513.51