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STUDIES ON PEACH DOUBLE ROW PLANTING SYSTEMS
The trees, grafted on seedlings, were trained as sprint palmettes in a single row (555 trees/ha), and as ‘free spindles’ in double rows (at six different densities, 1 230; 1 330; 1 540; 1 600; 2 050; 2 220 trees/ha). ‘Fayette’ was also trained as a modified palmette in a single row, the trees being spaced at shorter distances (4.5 x 2.0) than sprint palmettes.
The first five years’ data show that with the peach high density systems offer interesting possibilities, in spite of the lack of dwarfing rootstocks.
Increasing the density, and using suitable varieties, it is possible to utilise root competition to reduce tree size and to reach higher yields in shorter time than with sprint palmettes.
After four crops from all varieties, cumulative yields per tree were highest with ‘sprint palmettes’ (87–107 kg/tree), followed by double rows with 1 230 trees/ha (65–75 kg/tree).
Cumulative yields per hectare were higher from double rows with 2 050 trees/ha (108–103 tons/ha) than with the higher density (2 220 trees/ha) planting.
Generally, cumulative yields were not directly proportional to plant density, but they were 2.2 to 1.4 times higher than the cumulative crops from sprint palmettes.
The modified palmettes yielded 1.55 times more fruit than did sprint palmettes.