Vegetative parameters of sweet cherry (Cerasus avium L.) cultivars in two training systems

Á Csihon,P Vámos,P Dremák,I J Holb,D K Bicskei

doi:10.31421/ijhs/25/1-2./2913

Abstract

Hungarian sweet cherry production has been changed recently. Thanks to the favourable selling prices many new plantations were established in the last years. In the new orchards mainly spindle canopy are trained, although many type of crown forms are used all over the world. In our study slender spindle and bush canopy were evaluated with three cultivars (‘Petrus’, ‘Vera’, ‘Carmen’) grafted on Prunus mahaleb rootstock. Vigor of the 3-4 years old trees showed spectacular differences. The highest vigor with Spanish bush was found for cv. ‘Vera’, but on slender spindle canopy the thickness values were medium. Meanwhile cv. ‘Petrus’ showed the highest trunk thickness with spindle canopy, but the lowest with Spanish bush. On spindle canopy cv. ‘Carmen’ presented the highest ramification ability, but its 2-3 years old twigs started to bald very early, which can be considered an unfavorable phenomenon. Bush canopy still can be described with strong vegetative growth on 3-4 years old trees, as vigor of spindle trees are more moderate.

Highlights

Sweet cherry cultivars are mainly used for fresh consumption, intensive canopies are required which facilitate the harvest and help the penetration of light
Training systems are often adapted to ecological environment
& Gonda (2010) examined training and maintaining of free spindle and slender spindle with different cultivars grafted on Prunus mahaleb rootstocks and found that each cultivar needs special pruning policy in order to produce optimal yields and quality continuously

Summary

Introduction

Sweet cherry cultivars are mainly used for fresh consumption, intensive canopies are required which facilitate the harvest and help the penetration of light.Training systems are often adapted to ecological environment. In Hungary free spindle crown form is used safely at all production sites. Hrotkó (2007) reports that two new training systems are developed and adapted in Hungary in the intensive sweet cherry orchards, namely modified Brunner-spindle and cherry spindle. Gonda et al (2007) developed canopies and pruning systems for domestic varieties in intensive orchards. Vaszily & Gonda (2010) examined training and maintaining of free spindle and slender spindle with different cultivars grafted on Prunus mahaleb rootstocks and found that each cultivar needs special pruning policy in order to produce optimal yields and quality continuously. Bicskei & Gonda (2014) compared free spindle and bush canopies and stated that bush canopy makes easier the maintaining of the vegetative and generative balance. On the other hand the pruning and the harvest are easier to carry out thanks to the lower tree height

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