IN MY MAY column, we explored the contrasting challenges and benefits of the evolutionary growth and fruiting habit of sweet cherries, which are genetically "hard-wired" to not only produce very tall trees to survive in forests but also to develop a pattern of leaves that capture sunlight very efficiently for photosynthesis when the leader or shoots grow vertically.This vertical growth is a highly efficient partitioning of growth resources (carbohydrates, nitrogen, other mineral nutrients) with minimal structural waste, since vertical growth could be thought of as the shortest, most efficient distance between two points. This vertical line of growth connects the soil (where mineral nutrients are acquired) to the full sunlight at the top of the forest (where the greatest amount of carbohydrates can be produced daily through photosynthesis). The Upright Fruiting Offshoots (UFO) and Kym Green Bush (KGB) canopy training systems harness these evolutionary growth efficiencies with multiple vertically oriented, unbranched leaders for bearing fruit.
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