Scanning report year 2 on Stonefruit Variety testing

Development of a new pruning system for super-high-density-orchard systems in sour cherry for over the row harvesting.
The goal at AU FOOD is to develop orchard systems for several industry fruit shrubs and tree species that can all be harvested by the same machine, a New Holland 9090X Dual harvester, thus increasing use and cost-efficiency of such a big investment in a harvester. In sour cherry we are currently testing how to transform and create a super-high-density-orchard system adapted to harvest by this machine in the future. The overall model will be trees grafted on semi dwarf root stocks, planted in 1-1.5 m distance in the row and with 3 - 3.5 m distance between rows. Trees will have a straight vertical main trunk and pruned to establish many thin horizontal shoots from the trunk of up to 4 years of age adaptable to the passage between horizontal tunnel shakers. Mechanical pruning will be done to renew a portion of shoots every year. Branches thicker than about 1.5 cm will be pruned back to the trunk for creating new thin shoots. A maximum height of 2.5 - 2.7 m of the tree trunk is maintained to fit into the harvester but allowing thin shoots to reach up to 3 m height. Pruning and shaping methods how to create such a tree model from newly planted young trees or from an existing high density orchard is currently undertaken using Stevnsbær sour cherry cultivars and other international cultivars. Cultivars with characteristics adaptable to this new system will be sought.

Documents

Scanning report - Stonefruit Variety testing, AU () Scanning report on Stonefruit Variety testing in Denmark, 2017 The report include a Danish summary

Details

Activity type

Publication of EIP-AGRI practitioner abstract

Activity work package

Performance of new fruit varieties

Activity number

AU-WP2-A5

Activity contact

Senior scientist Martin Jensen
Aarhus University, Department of Food Science
Kirstinebjergvej 10, 5792 Aarslev
[email protected]

Activity partner

AU

Activity country

Denmark

Last edit

20-09-2018