RESEARCHES ON APPLE HIGH DENSITY PLANTINGS

An experimental orchard in the Tuscan costal area was established in February 1971 to compare different densities of plantings with a conventional system at 4 x 3 m (833 trees/ha) for ‘Starkrimson’ on M.7.

High density planting arrangements included multirow beds split by 3.5 m travel lanes.
By these arrangements the number of trees per hectare was 3020 (a), 4530 (b) and 6040 (c) with three different distances for each density.

After 3 years of yields, accumulated crop per tree was directly correlated with the tree spacing: trees at 4 x 3 m produced 36 kg/tree against 13.6 (a), 10.7 (b) and 8.5 (c) kg/tree.

Fruit size was slightly reduced by tree density.
Total accumulated yield was respectively 30, 41, 48 and 51 t/ha for the conventional planting and treatments (a), (b) and (c), respectively.

The early onset of cropping reduced the growth of trees especially in the higher density of plantings and consequently, the labour cost was lower.

Symposium on High Density Planting

F. Loreti, R. Guerriero, S. Morini

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1978.65.16