INITIAL RESULTS FROM THE EVALUATION OF PLUM CULTIVARS GROWN IN A VERY DENSE PLANTING

An experimental orchard that included 25 cultivars was established in the spring of 2006. The experimental set included mostly novelties that have been recently bred in Germany and some standards currently grown in the Czech Republic.
From each cultivar 3 trees grafted on ‘St.
Julian A’ rootstock were planted without replication in the spacing 4×1 m.
Trees were trained as slender spindles using mostly summer pruning.
In the orchard, the following characteristics were evaluated: flower and fruit sets, tree vigour based upon the measurement of trunk-cross sectional area and canopy volume, time of flowering, time of fruit ripening and yields per tree.
The most vigorous according to the canopy volume were ‘Tophit’, ‘Elena’ ‘President’, ‘Presenta’ and ‘Topking’, whereas the cultivars ‘Toptaste’, ‘Hanita’, ‘Čačanska Lepotica’, ‘Top 2000’ and ‘Katinka’ grew the weakest.
The cultivar ‘Topstar Plus’ had the highest yields followed by ‘Topend Plus’, ‘Topstar’, ‘Jojo’ and ‘Toptaste’, whereas the least productive was ‘Ruth Gerstetter’, followed by ‘Topgigant Plus’, ‘Haganta’ and ‘Top 2000’.

II EUFRIN Plum and Prune Working Group Meeting on Present Constraints of Plum Growing in Europe

J. Blažek, I. Pištěková

plum cultivars, dense planting, tree training, yields, tree vigour, St. Julian A

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.968.13