APPLE TRAINING SYSTEMS IN HIGH DENSITY PLANTINGS SUITABLE FOR FULL MECHANIZATION OF THE CULTURAL PRACTICES

The orchard was planted in 1979 with 3 apple cultivars: Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Red Rome Cooper 1, grafted on 4 clonal rootstocks.

Five types of trellis have been realized by the use of special supports and planted at different densities according to the following scheme:

During the first five-year period of trial, the best results were obtained with the shapes A and B.

The cultivar Golden Delicious was the most productive. Granny Smith performed at very high production and good fruit size levels, while the trees of cv Red Rome Cooper 1 did not reach an adequate growth. The more productive rootstocks have been M 9 for the cultivate Granny Smith and MM 106 for Golden Delicious and Red Rome Cooper 1. best combination was the cultivar Golden Delicious on MM 106 with the trellis type B, with a yield of 136 t/ha over the first three cropping years.

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