ISHS Acta Horticulturae 160: III International Symposium on Research and Development on Orchard and Plantation Systems
HIGH-DENSITY AND VERY-HIGH-DENSITY SWEET AND SOUR CHERRY CULTURE IN ROMANIA |
| Authors: | C. Parnia, Gh. Dumitrescu, C. Rosca, G. Prahoveanu |
| Abstract:
Experiments on spacing, training and pruning systems for sweet and sour cherry varieties were carried out over the years 1975–1983 at the Research Institute for Fruit Growing, Pitesti-Maracineni and at some other experimental stations. The density range for sour cherry trees was 600–2500 trees/ha and for sweet cherry 400–5000 trees/ha. The training systems included modified open-centre, 'leader' pyramid, free-standard, two-branched and four-branched palmettes and vertical cordons. In order to reduce vigour double-sectorial pruning was employed and wide crotch angles were achieved by cutting the shoots back to 1–2 buds or by a double heading-back in the first year after planting. Trees of the Meteor and Pitic sour cherry varieties came into bearing in the third year after planting with yields of 8.7 t/ha at 4 x 2.5 m spacing and 5.3 t/ha at 4 x 2 m spacing. In the seventh year after planting the palmette-trained sour cherry orchard (4 x 4 m) yielded 9.3 t/ha of Pitic and 12.0 t/ha of Crisana 11/6. Summer pruning of the palmettes reduced their growth by 20%. The very-high-density vertical cordon orchard yielded 22.5 t/ha of Crisana 11/6 in its seventh year. In the sweet cherry experiments the modified open centre with training of scaffold branches and double-sectorial pruning in the first years after planting hastened the trees coming into crop, reduced tree height and gave wide crotch angles. | |
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