RESULTS OBTAINED IN VERY-HIGH-DENSITY APPLE ORCHARDS IN ROMANIA

1. The evolution of fruit growing systems

Within Romania the various types of climate and soil offer favourable conditions for most of the fruit species grown in temperate regions. As a result there is a long tradition of fruit growing, which has in recent years been concentrated on Prunus crops and apple.

Apple and pear culture was rapidly extended after the second world war, increasing from 19% of the total fruit acreage in 1957 to 32% in 1983, research effort being concentrated to achieve this result.

In this relatively short time fruit growing systems went through two main stages:-

The first was the stage of extensive orchard systems, which lasted until 1960–62 and was characterised by use of ‘agropomicol’ and ‘classic’ (standard) systems and by the presence of many isolated trees.

The main foreign varieties were Jonathan, Reine de Reinette, Reinette de Canada, Reinette Bauman, Belle Fleur Jaune, and the main varieties of indigenous origin were Cretesc, Patul and Salciu. The main rootstocks were Malus sylvestris and seedlings of local varieties while the very vigorous vegetative rootstocks M.11 and M.16 were used to a lesser extent.

The ‘agropomicol’ system (3 678 ha in 1979) is characterised by a wide distance (10–12 m) between the rows in order to use this land for cultivated crops while the distance between trees within the rows was 5–6 m. This system was later improved by planting another two rows of trees between the initial ones.

The ‘classic’ or standard system was given this name because of the long period and wide scale of its use. In the last census it was used on 78 435 ha or 80.2% of the total apple acreage. It is characterised by densities of 140–180 trees per ha planted at 8–9 m x 7–8 m.

The ‘isolated trees’ are grown along roads and in home and institute gardens and represent 14.8% of the total number of trees.

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