Evaluation of agropomological properties of some commercial apple cultivars in an intensive planting system in Karaj climate.

摘要

Nowadays apple growers tend to use intensive planting systems and dwarfing rootstocks in order to increase yield and decrease production costs. A V-shape system represents an efficient and popular option to increase yield and fruit quality. Hence, this paper attempts to compare some vegetative, yield and fruit properties of five apple cultivars ('Golab-kohans', 'Fuji', 'Gala', 'Starking' and 'Delbar estival') grown at a horticultural research station in Karaj, Iran. The experimental apple cultivars were grafted onto an M.9 rootstock trained in a V system. All trees were planted in the winter of 2005 using drip irrigation. 'Golab-kohans' formed the highest trees (278.63 cm), trunk cross sectional area (7.31 cm2), mean shoot length (100.58 cm) and pH (4.85). Also 'Delbar estival' had the highest yield (0.98 kg), yield efficiency (0.55 kg/cm2), fruit weight (131.30 g), fruit length (5.91 cm), fruit diameter (6.72 cm) and L/D (0.87). In addition, 'Fuji' had the highest dry matter (21.71%) and fruit sunburn (56.92%). 'Golab-kohans' had the highest ash (0.66) and TSS (16.12) levels. 'Starking' had the highest fruit firmness (13.60 kg cm-2) and titrable acid (0.73). Consistently, results revealed that among the investigated cultivars, 'Delbar estival' can be introduced as a productive cultivar for the V system in Karaj's climatic condition.