ISHS Acta Horticulturae 326: International Symposium on Pre- and Postharvest Physiology of Pome-fruit
INFLUENCE OF PRUNING ON FRUIT QUALITY AND STORAGE POTENTIALS OF APPLES |
| Author: | H. Link |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.326.2 |
| Abstract:
Management practices in modern fruit growing got highly specialized during the last years. Worldwide experiments with fruit trees on nutrition, soil management, tree training, on thinning methods and on applications of growth regulators as well promoted practical fruit growing to a high extent. Nevertheless, the fruit industry gets and will get fruit with different potentials of quality and storability nowadays and in future years. On the one side these difficulties are due to the diversity of orchard conditions and of the climate. But, one can also say that many of the existing problems are selfmade by the growers. Longterm experiencies from Bavendorf Research Station on relationships between management practices and vegetative and generative development of apple trees resulted in a new "philosophy" of fruit growing. The center of which is the "moderately growing tree", a system that is regulated by a very high number of fruiting shoots per limb or per tree. Those trees show an early cessation of shoot growth, their current year's shoot length is drastically reduced and a lot of short fruiting wood is carried all over the crown. Due to close relationships between flower bud formation and vigourness of the trees, regularity and level of yields can be increased substantially by training the trees in such a way that a "self regulating system" is accomplished which needs no treatments with growth retardants. The reduction of vigourness achieved means less consumption of carbohydrates for shoot production. Therefore, carbohydrates are supposed to be utilized more efficiently for fruit development. This should help to improve size, colour and taste of the fruits. Susceptibility of the fruits to physiological disorders such as bitter pit and breakdown is reduced markedly. And it can be observed also that problems with pests and deseases get less severe. In the Lake of Constance Region this concept is used successfully in commercial fruit growing since several years. Nevertheless some questions in the concept need to be worked about basically. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
