Commercial qualities of fruits of different varieties of apple trees in an intensive orchard on the farm of Central Russia “Agrofirma named after 15 years of October”

Abstract

The studies were carried out in a large fruit-growing farm in Central Russia “Agrofirm named after 15 years of October” in the Lebedyansky district of the Lipetsk region. The farm is switching to intensive horticulture using new varieties of apple trees on low-growing rootstocks. The article analyzed the results of a study of a comprehensive assessment of apple varieties with the necessary technological parameters for the production of products that meet domestic and international standards. We studied the main components of productivity and marketability of four varieties of apple trees on low-growing rootstocks: Ligol, Honey Crunch, Berkutovskoe and Spartan. It was found that all varieties are productive and have high marketability. But the most productive variety was Ligol -75 t/ha, which exceeded Spartan by 24 t/ha, Berkutovskoe - by 39 t/ha and Honey Crunch - by 48 t/ha. It was established that the commercial qualities of fruits depended on the characteristics of the variety, changing from the place of growth and the weather conditions of the year. By the sum of sugars, the best variety of apples was determined - this is Spartan, it had the most sugars (11.9%), the excess over the Ligol variety was 1.0%, Honey Crunch - 1.3%, Berkutovskoe - 1.6%. It was found that the highest content of ascorbic acid was in apples of the Berkutovskoye variety (15 mg/100 g), somewhat less was contained in the fruits of Honey Crunch - 14.5 mg/100 g. The minimum amount (8.8 mg/100 g) of ascorbic acid was in Spartan apples. It was established that with an average value of the sugar-acid coefficient of 13.8, the diversity limits for the studied varieties varied from 12.8 (Ligol) to 14.3 (Honey Crunch and Spartan). It was suggested that two varieties of honey crunch and Spartan are closest to the optimal values for this indicator.