Influence of orchard production system and cultivar on early productivity of sweet cherry (Prunus avium): effects on tree growth and fruit production and quality

1995 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 781 ◽  
Author(s):  
WD Boucher ◽  
G Adams

This experiment assessed 3 orchard production systems [Tatura trellis, 1-m within-row tree spacing; palmette trellis, 2-m within-row spacing; freestanding, multiple leader (vase), 3-m within-row spacing] and 2 cultivars of sweet cherry (Prunus avium) (Van, Lambert) to establish the horticultural merits of high density, sweet cherry production. The combination of high tree densities and shallow duplex soils reduced vegetative vigour by 32% compared with the lowest tree density production system. Production systems at the highest tree densities produced the highest cumulative yields to year 7 for both cultivars. Fruit size was not affected by orchard production system; however, the extent of rain-induced fruit splitting may be affected by production systems. Cultivar influenced both yield and susceptibility to rain-induced fruit cracking. Van was earlier to bear fruit than Lambert on all production systems and more resistant to rain-induced fruit splitting.

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Lang

Sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) can be one of the most profitable tree fruits cultivated in temperate climates. While cherry trees grow naturally to relatively tall heights (≈35 ft [≥10 m]), new size-controlling cherry rootstocks similar to those used in high-density apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) orchards are now a reality. The Gisela (GI.) and Weiroot (W.) series from Germany, the Gran Manier (GM.) series from Belgium, the P-HL series from Czech Republic, `Tabel Edabriz' from France, and others of international origin are at various stages of scientific and field testing in North America, with some now being used for commercial fruit production. These stocks confer several advantageous traits besides vigor control, including precocious fruiting and high productivity. While these beneficial traits are exciting, serious problems also have been documented on occasion, such as small fruit size and tree decline. As many of these rootstocks are interspecific Prunus L. hybrids, might there be significant limitations for fruit quality and orchard longevity? What is known about their tolerance to various soil types and/or climatological stresses? What is known about their susceptibilities to pathogens and pests? Further, with the U.S. and worldwide orchard area planted to fresh-market sweet cherries already expanding to record levels throughout the 1990s and a time-honored agricultural tendency toward overproduction until grower profits are minimized (e.g., recent international apple markets), what might be the future impact of such precocious, productive rootstocks on sweet cherry profitability and sustainable production? This overview addresses these topics, providing some answers and some areas for future scientific investigation and industry discussion.


2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Lang

High tunnel production systems typically use horticultural crops that are annually or biennially herbaceous, high in value, short in stature, and quick to produce. At best, tree fruits may fit only one of these criteria–high value. Sweet cherry (Prunus avium) may command high enough values in premium market niches to make high tunnel production strategies worth attempting. Furthermore, sweet cherry production can be a risky endeavor, even in optimal climates, due to the potentially devastating effects of preharvest rain that cause fruit cracking. Consequently, environmental modification by tunnels in regions like the Great Lakes provides a significant risk reduction. Additional potential benefits, such as protection from frosts, diseases, insects, wind scarring, etc., add further production value. Multi-bay high tunnels were constructed in 2005 at two Michigan State University experiment stations, over established and newly planted sweet cherry trees on dwarfing rootstocks, to study and optimize the effects of production environment modification on vegetative and reproductive growth, marketing season extension, and protection of cherries from diseases, insect pests, and/or physiological disorders. Results with tunnels thus far include premium fruit quality and high crop value; increased leaf size and terminal shoot growth; decreased radial trunk growth; decreased chemical pesticide inputs; decreased incidence of cherry leaf spot (Blumeriella jaapii) and bacterial canker (Pseudomonas syringae); increased incidence of powdery mildew (Podosphaera clandestina); inconclusive effects on brown rot (Monolinia fructicola); no or reduced infestation by plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) or cherry fruit fly (Rhagoletis cingulata); dramatically reduced japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) damage; and increased black cherry aphid (Myzus cerasi) and two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) populations.


HortScience ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 850A-850
Author(s):  
Roberto Nunez-Elisea* ◽  
Helen Cahn ◽  
Lilia Caldeira ◽  
Clark Seavert

A `Regina'/Gisela 6 sweet cherry orchard was planted in April 2001 to evaluate a row cover (RC) made of black, woven polypropylene fabric, in water conservation. Trees were trained to a central leader and planted at 3 m x 5.4 m. Soil water content and tree growth variables were compared for trees growing with or without a 2.4 m-wide RC. Irrigation of all trees replenished approximately 80% of weekly evaporation rate. Trees with RC maintained consistently higher (30% to 40%) soil moisture content at 30 cm depth than non-RC trees. In Spring 2003, trees in RC had significantly larger trunk cross sectional area (34%), height (7%), total wood length (65%), total number of branches (20%) and number of 1-year-old-shoots (45%) compared to trees with no row cover. Length of 1-year-old wood for trees in RC was two-fold that of non-covered trees. In Summer 2003, RC had no clear effect on bloom time, intensity or duration. Fruit yields were light and not affected by RC, but fruit size was slightly larger for trees in RC. Although trees were not fertilized, foliar nitrogen content was significantly higher and leaf green color was notably darker green for trees with RC. During Spring and Summer 2003, soil temperatures under RC at 5-cm and-10 cm depths were generally 1 °C to 2 °C warmer than in non-covered ground. The RC did not affect air temperature at 10 cm and 30 cm above ground. It is speculated that RC promoted tree growth by a combined increased available soil moisture and warmer root temperatures, which favor root development and nutrient uptake, particularly in the absence of competing weeds. Increased branching in trees with RC is unclear. It is possible that light quality above RC triggers developmental changes resulting in increased vegetative budbreak.


HortScience ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinhua Yin ◽  
Clark F. Seavert ◽  
Janet Turner ◽  
Roberto Núñez-Elisea ◽  
Helen Cahn

The impacts of synthetic polypropylene groundcover in the row area of young sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) trees (Regina on Gisela 6) on soil nutrient availability, tree mineral nutrition and productivity, and cash costs and returns were investigated on a Van Horn fine sandy loam soil at Hood River, Ore., from 2001 to 2005. Treatments included 2.44-m wide synthetic fabric groundcover made of black, woven polypropylene over the row area of cherry trees and no groundcover but with herbicide applications in the row area with the same width as the polypropylene groundcover. Soil-available NO3 −, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Zn, Mn, and Cu contents in 0 to 30 cm in August did not differ significantly between the cover and no cover treatments in any year except 2005, when soil N and K levels were lower with polypropylene cover. Leaf N concentration in August was enhanced by 11% to 19% each year in the polypropylene cover treatment. However, leaf P concentration was lowered by 19% to 37% with polypropylene cover each year; and leaf Ca and Mg concentrations were reduced by 9% to 13% and 6% to 24%, respectively, as a result of polypropylene cover in 3 of 5 years. Reduced leaf P, Ca, and Mg concentrations in the cover treatment were attributed to the diluting effects of enhanced tree growth and fruit yield. Cumulative cash costs for the orchard within the first 4 years before fruit production were $5246/ha higher with polypropylene cover relative to no cover. However, these costs were offset quickly by increased returns from enhanced fruit yields. In the long-term, more fertilizers may need to be applied on polypropylene groundcovered trees to compensate for the enhanced tree growth and fruit production.


HortScience ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 563C-563
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Lang

Sweet cherries (Prunus avium) can be one of the most profitable tree fruit cultivated in temperate climates. While cherry trees grow naturally to relatively tall heights, new size-controlling cherry rootstocks similar to those used in high-density apple orchards are now a reality. The Gisela series from Germany, the Gran Manier series from Belgium, the Weiroot series, the P-HL series, Tabel Edabriz, and others of international origin are at various stages of scientific and field testing in North America, with some now moving into commercial fruit production. These stocks confer several highly advantageous traits besides vigor control, including precocious fruiting and high productivity. While these obvious traits are exciting, serious problems have also been documented, on occassion, with such phenomena as small fruit size and tree decline. As many of these rootstocks are interspecific Prunus hybrids, might there be significant limitations for fruit quality and orchard longevity? What is known about their susceptibilities to pathogens and pests? What is known about their tolerance to various soil types and/or climatological stresses? Further, with the U.S. and worldwide orchard area planted to fresh-market sweet cherries already expanding to record levels throughout the 1990s and a time-honored agricultural trend toward overproduction until grower profits are minimized (see recent international apple markets), what might be the future impact of such precocious, productive rootstocks on sweet cherry profitability and sustainable production? This overview will address these topics, providing some answers and some areas for future scientific investigation and discussion.


HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 548a-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.M. Glenn ◽  
G. Puterka ◽  
T. Baugher ◽  
T. Unruh ◽  
S. Drake

Hydrophobic particle film technology (HPF) is a developing pest control system for tree fruit production systems. Studies were established in Chile, and Washington, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in the United States, to evaluate the effect of HPF technology on tree fruit yield and quality. Studies in Chile, Washington, and West Virginia demonstrated increased photosynthetic rate at the leaf level. Yield was increased in peaches (Chile) and apples (West Virginia), and fruit size was increased in apples (Washington and Pennsylvania). Increased red color in apple was demonstrated at all sites with reduced russetting and `Stayman' cracking in Pennsylvania. HPF technology appears to be an effective tool in reducing water and heat stress in tree fruit resulting in increased fruit quality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Quero-García ◽  
Philippe Letourmy ◽  
José Antonio Campoy ◽  
Camille Branchereau ◽  
Svetoslav Malchev ◽  
...  

AbstractRain-induced fruit cracking is a major problem in sweet cherry cultivation. Basic research has been conducted to disentangle the physiological and mechanistic bases of this complex phenomenon, whereas genetic studies have lagged behind. The objective of this work was to disentangle the genetic determinism of rain-induced fruit cracking. We hypothesized that a large genetic variation would be revealed, by visual field observations conducted on mapping populations derived from well-contrasted cultivars for cracking tolerance. Three populations were evaluated over 7–8 years by estimating the proportion of cracked fruits for each genotype at maturity, at three different areas of the sweet cherry fruit: pistillar end, stem end, and fruit side. An original approach was adopted to integrate, within simple linear models, covariates potentially related to cracking, such as rainfall accumulation before harvest, fruit weight, and firmness. We found the first stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for cherry fruit cracking, explaining percentages of phenotypic variance above 20%, for each of these three types of cracking tolerance, in different linkage groups, confirming the high complexity of this trait. For these and other QTLs, further analyses suggested the existence of at least two-linked QTLs in each linkage group, some of which showed confidence intervals close to 5 cM. These promising results open the possibility of developing marker-assisted selection strategies to select cracking-tolerant sweet cherry cultivars. Further studies are needed to confirm the stability of the reported QTLs over different genetic backgrounds and environments and to narrow down the QTL confidence intervals, allowing the exploration of underlying candidate genes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiliang Qi ◽  
Congli Liu ◽  
Lulu Song ◽  
Yuhong Li ◽  
Ming Li

Author(s):  
Michaela Benková ◽  
Iveta Čičová ◽  
Daniela Benedikova ◽  
Lubomir Mendel ◽  
Miroslav Glasa

Abstract The work is focused on the evaluation of variability of morphological and pomological characteristics of several old sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) that were found in different Slovak regions. The experimental work has been performed during two years, 2014 and 2015. The following characteristics according to the descriptor list of subgenus Cerasus were evaluated - period of flowering and ripening, morphological characteristics of the flowers, fruit size, fruit weight, and quality parameters. The results showed high variability of evaluated accessions. From the 13 surveyed localities, the most valuable accessions were found in the locality Hornį Streda - places Čachtice, Krakovany, Nitra, and Brdárka. During the collecting expeditions, 170 accessions of sweet cherry, with fruit of the different quality were found. The most interesting accessions were grafted onto rootstocks with different intensity of growth (Prunus avium L., Prunus mahaleb L., and ‘Gisela5’). Some of the selected cherry accessions can be used for commercial growing after tests, while some of them can be used only for collection of genetic resources and as potential genitors in breeding programmes.


HortScience ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry H. Neilsen ◽  
Denise Neilsen ◽  
Frank Kappel ◽  
T. Forge

‘Cristalina’ and ‘Skeena’ sweet cherry cultivars (Prunus avium L.) on Gisela 6 (Prunus cerasus × Prunus canescens) rootstock planted in 2005 were maintained since 2006 in a randomly blocked split-split plot experimental design with six blocks of two irrigation frequency main plot treatments within which two cultivar subplots and three soil management sub-subplots were randomly applied. The focus of this study was the growth, yield, and fruit quality response of sweet cherry to water and soil management over three successive fruiting seasons, 2009–11, in a cold climate production area. The final 2 years of the study period were characterized by cool, wet springs resulting in low yield and yield efficiency across all treatments. Soil moisture content (0- to 20-cm depth) during the growing season was often higher in soils that received high-frequency irrigation (HFI) compared with low-frequency irrigation (LFI). HFI and LFI received the same amount of water, but water was applied four times daily in the HFI treatment but every other day in the LFI treatment. Consequently, larger trunk cross-sectional area (TCSA) and higher yield were found on HFI compared with LFI trees. Soil management strategies involving annual bloom time phosphorus (P) fertigation and wood waste mulching did not affect tree vigor and yield. Increased soluble solids concentration (SSC) occurred with LFI. Decreased SSC occurred with delayed harvest maturity in trees receiving P fertigation at bloom. The largest fruit size was correlated for both cultivars with low crop loads ranging from 100 to 200 g fruit/cm2 TCSA. Overall cool, wet spring weather strongly affected annual yield and fruit quality, often overriding cultivar and soil and water management effects.


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