Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ondary fruiting branches on the main laterals and keep the can-
opy young and productive.
3. Remove the side branches on main laterals. The goal is to pro-
duce long, columnar fruiting branches that have no side
branches. This allows excellent light distribution, which is essen-
tial for developing color. Varieties that bear fruit at the tips, such
as 'Fuji', weigh down the branches (which is desirable) and pre-
vent you from having to mechanically bend down each branch.
4. On 'Gala', the long laterals tend to bend down too much, resulting
in little shoot extension and thin wood bearing clusters of small
apples at the tips. Head back laterals to a point where they are
about the diameter of a pencil.
Training Pear Trees
Commercial pear production differs from apples in several ways. First, very
few pear varieties make up the bulk of world production, and we do not see
the rapid introduction of hot, new varieties as we do with apples. 'Bartlett',
as it has for decades, still makes up the majority of pear production do-
mestically and worldwide. There is much less need to force early production
to capitalize on the short market life of new pear varieties, as is now done
with apples. In addition to pear varieties being limited in number, so are pear
rootstocks. Some of the dwarfing rootstocks needed for the high-density and
very-high-density pear orchards are not adapted to many growing regions,
and others have yet to be tested across North America.
This is not to say that new commercial pear orchards should not be
designed using high-density systems. We do, however, have much to learn
about high-density pear production systems, and there is an extremely lim-
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