Vol. 74 No: 5

Title:
Planting density, above-ground dry-matter partitioning and fruit quality in greenhouse-grown 'Flordaprince' peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) trees trained to 'free-standing Tatura'

Authors:
T. CARUSO, D. GIOVANNINI, F.P. MARRA and F. SOTTILE

pp: 547-552

Abstract:
The effect of planting density on yield, fruit quality and above-ground dry-matter partitioning into vegetative and reproductive organs of six year old peach trees was investigated in Sicily on the very early-ripening cv Flordaprince in greenhouse. Increasing the number of trees per hectare from 1500 to 5000 significantly reduced total above-ground dry matter, trunk cross-sectional area and total leaf area. Differences in growth did not result in substantial modifications in the source-sink relationships between the vegetative and the reproductive organs of the above-ground part of the tree, as shown by the lack of statistical differences in dry-matter partitioning into fruit, leaves, shoots, one year old wood and trunk + branches among the treatments. Yield and number of fruits per tree diminished as planting density increased though, due to the number of trees per ha, differences in terms of yield per unit of soil surface area were not significant. Yield was on average 21.0 t per ha, a noteworthy result and approximately double that obtained with early ripening cultivars in a traditional planting system (400-500 trees per ha trained to a vase). Of the yield quality traits considered, fruit weight was undoubtedly the most heavily penalized, undergoing a significant reduction at densities above 2000 trees per ha. Consequently, it would not appear worth exceeding a planting density of 1500 trees per ha. The productive benefits to be gained with higher densities in the initial years no longer hold after a few years.

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