Abstract
Modern almond growing travels on the tracks of super-high density (SHD). Born in 2010, it has already reached 6700 ha planted all over the world. This new cultivation system needs to define efficient agronomic techniques in order to identify it as a “Super-Efficient System”. Among these, the choice of cultivar is a crucial technique and a key factor for sustainability. The purpose of this study was to compare different cultivars in terms of vegetative, productive, and efficiencies parameters in order to gain applicable relevant knowledge about the SHD almond cultivation technique. For this, 3 years of research was carried out during 2017–2019, on a young almond grove made in 2014 with row spacing of 3.80 m × 1.20 m (2190 trees/ha), to evaluate the agronomic behavior of the two most planted cultivars in Italy, Guara-Tuono and Lauranne® Avijor, grafted on the Rootpac®20 dwarfing rootstock. The main biometric, productive, yield, mechanical harvesting efficiencies, and almond quality parameters were evaluated. Cv Lauranne® showed greater vigor, greater fruit yield, and damaged axes by mechanical harvesting, while higher values of yield efficiencies were observed for cv Tuono. Harvesting efficiency was related to canopy size and tree age. On the contrary, almonds quality parameters were strongly related to the cultivar, confirming the good performance of Tuono as varietal characters. Then, this cultivar seems to be the most suitable for an efficient SHD planting system, in line with the objectives of modern sustainable fruit growing. The better performance of cv Tuono could be related to the positive influence of the terroir as well.
Highlights
The almond tree (Prunus dulcis Mill. = Prunus amygdalus Batsch) is the most important nut fruit produced and consumed throughout the world [1]
The choice of cultivar is confirmed as a key factor for the achievement of the almond super-high density (SHD) cropping system goals
Cv Lauranne showed a better response in terms of yield and fruit quality parameters, trees were more vigorous, with a higher percentage of damaged axes observed during the harvest
Summary
Almond acreage and production increased fairly consistently every year, recording +196% in the last decades [2]. In 2019/2020, 30% of global nut production and consumption consisted of almonds, with production increasing by 26% in the last 10 years [1]. The traditional system is characterized by less than 350 trees per hectare, with tree spacings from 8 × 8 m to 6 × 6 m, the application of vigorous rootstocks; no mechanization and no irrigation [6,7]. The medium-high density system, instead, is characterized by 250 to 700 trees per hectare, with tree spacings from 6 × 4 m to 5 × 3.6 m medium to high levels of mechanization of the most important cultivation technique, like pruning and harvesting, using pruners and trunk shaker harvesters [6,7]
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