The Effectiveness of the Fertilizers Applied in the Plum and Cherry Orchards at the Fruit Research Station Cluj-Napoca

Abstract

SUMMARY Fertilizing is an important step of the agrotechnical complex in the plum and cherry orchards (Koskela et al., 2010; Botu et al., 2010). This ensures high fruit productions every year (Davidescu et al., 1981; Rusu, 1993). This study focuses on the effects of applying different fertilizers on plum and cherry species. During 2010 these effects were monitored for the ‘Carpatin’ plum varietie and ‘Germersdorf’ cherry varietie. The planting distance for cherry trees is 6/3 m and for plum trees it's 4/3m. The experience was done on 6 variants each consisting of 6 randomly chosen trees: V1 – untreated, the control; V2 – fertilized with 20 t/ha of manure + N60 + P50 + K60/ha; V3 – fertilized N80 + P60 + K80/ha ;V4 – fertilized with 30 t/ha of manure + N80 + P50 + K125/ha; V5 – fertilized cu N90 + P60 + K120/ha;V6 – fertilized with 40 t/ha of manure + P70 + K100/ha. In order to determine the effectiveness of the fertilizers had been applied growth dynamics, phenological observations, average productions and the quality of the fruit were monitored. The biggest growth sprout for the plum trees was observed at the V6 variant, where the trees' total height increased by 2,95 m, the crown diameter increased by 2,10 m and the trunk diameter increased by 23 cm. In comparison to the control these dimensions show an increase of 18%, 12% and respectively 15%. For the cherry trees the biggest height, crown and trunk diameter development were also observed for the V6 variant. Experiments have proven the effect that organic fertilizers have in the orchards. Fertilizing improves vegetative growth and therefore an increased fruit production.