DOUBLE ROOT SYSTEMS IN YUGOSLAVIA V-SHAPED FRAMEWORK WHICH IS TRAINED INTO A BOAT SHAPE

Very little pruning is required. The main feature of the system is that trees are planted at a 30° angle to the ground, with grafts buried 4–10 cm below the surface, the depth depending on soil conditions. After two or three years the scion forms its own independant root system above the graft, thus giving the tree a double root system.

The terminal buds of the main branches are also left unpruned so that they regulate the growth of the tree.

Planting distances are normally 4–5 m between rows, and 3.30–3.50 m within rows, i.e. a density of about 550 or 600 trees per hectare.

From long experience in Yugoslavia this intensive form of system has a number of useful features:

• First, trees come into bearing early: apples the third year after planting. Yields from 3-year-old apples (Melrose, Golden Delicious) were 20 tonnes per hectare. Mature plantings in 1982 gave yields of 70–80 t/ha compared with palmette pillar yields of 30–40 t/ha.
• Secondly, the trees naturally remain in a restricted bush shape with a minimum of pruning and no supporting frame enabling all picking from the ground.
• Thirdly, cropping is very even, the form apparently eliminating the tendency to biennial bearing without recourse to pruning techniques.
• Fourthly, as far as can be seen there appears to be fewer pest and disease problems on the bushes, perhaps on account of the open, well-aerated form of the mature bush.

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