IMPROVED ORCHARD MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR SWEET CHERRY PRODUCTION

The investigation was carried out in an experimental sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) orchard established at the Institute of Agriculture – Kyustendil, Bulgaria, in spring 1991 on a Chromic Luvisols (LVch) heavy loamy soil. ‘Van’ was grafted on P. mahaleb (L.) seedling rootstocks and planted 5.7 m between rows and 4.5 m between trees in the rows.
Two levels of nitrogen fertilization, N₁₀₀ and N₂₀₀ (100 and 200 kg N/ha, respectively), was applied annually beginning in 1992, and three orchard floor management systems (permanent fallow, cultivation + green manure, and cultivation + intercropping) was imposed annually from 1994 to 2003. A second experiment compared three pruning systems: freely grown crown, crown with 5 scaffold branches and bush crown with two different trunk heights (40 or 80 cm). From this work, two recommendations for cherry orchard management were made for biological and economical benefits, namely fallow orchard floors with organic and mineral fertilization and shrubby crown.

V International Cherry Symposium

V. Tasseva, D. Domozetov

Prunus avium, Prunus mahaleb, fertilization, pruning, training

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.795.121