Evaluation of growth, yield and fruit characteristics of five apple cultivars on "Gutingen V" system during 2006-2008

Abstract

Orchard intensification is motivated by the desire to produce fruit early to rapidly recover establishment costs. Intensification is possible by using dwarfing rootstocks that control tree size, induce early cropping, and produce large quantities of fruit relative to the amount of wood produced. Therefore, this study attempted to compare yield and fruit properties of five apple cultivars grown in the Karaj area of Iran. The concerned apple cultivars were 'Golab-kohans' (Iranian cultivar), 'Fuji', 'Starking', 'Delbar estival' and 'Gala' (commercial foreign cultivars) that were grafted on M.9 rootstock which were trained in 'Gutingen V' system. All these trees were planted in winter 2005. The trees were drip irrigated from the second year after planting. Results showed that 'Golab-kohans' had the highest vegetative traits include TCSA (11.30 cm 2 ), shoot growth (185.30 cm) and tree height (325.32 cm). Also 'Delbar estival' had the highest yield per tree (6.2 kg), yield efficiency (1 kg/cm 2 ) and fruit weight (147.52 gr). 'Starking' owned the highest fruit firmness (15.27 kg/cm 2 ), dry matter (32.86 %) and ash (0.82 %). In addition, 'Gala' had the most TSS (16.12), pH (4.02), fruit length (5.79 cm) and fruit diameter (6.68 cm). 'Fuji' had the greatest L/D (0.89), TA (0.74 %) and fruit sunburn (56.23 %).