Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1.4.1.3
HIGH DENSITY PLANTING
Introduction of high-density planting is one of important technology to
achieve high productivity per unit area both in short duration crops and
perennial crops also to lower the impact of climate change. High-density
planting in tree crops was first introduced in Europe in case of apple in
sixties, with the development of Malling and Malling Merton Series of
rootstocks. Subsequently, this was tried in other crops. Today, majority
of apple orchards in Australia, Europe, and New Zealand use this inten-
sive system of fruit production. Subsequently, this system was adopted in
peach, plum, sweet cherry, and pear. The development of high density or
intensive system has been made possible by the discovery and develop-
ment of dwarfing roots like M9, M26, in case of apple, Quince A for pear,
peach with almond hybrids (GF 677, 556) for peach and Cold in cherry.
Other developments that contributed to high density planting are the use
of growth regulators such as B-9, which dwarf the trees and encourage
early bud production. In India, high density planting (HDP) has been stan-
dardized in several fruit crops to provide high yield, high net economic
returns per unit area, more efficient use of natural resources (land, water,
solar energy) and inputs resulting in higher yields. Successful harvests but
selective adoption of HDP is already practice in mango, guava, banana,
citrus, pineapple, pomegranate, papaya, cashew and coconut.
Technologies for Meadow orcharding through HDP and canopy man-
agement have been standardized in guava. Coconut-based high-density
multispecies cropping systems have been developed for better stability of
income. In citrus it was made possible by use of a dwarfing rootstock. In
case of mango, development of Mallika and Amarpalli, which are medium
vigor made high density planting possible. While in banana and pineap-
ple intensive cultivation became possible by reducing distances between
plants, rows and beds. In Dashehari mango at Pantnagar, high density
planting has been achieved by closer spacing, canopy management and
use of chemicals. Future high-density plantings have to be developed by
development of dwarfing rootstock, interstocks, scion varieties as also a
combination of canopy management and growth regulators. The success
of high-density plantings also depends on optimum fertilizer and irriga-
tion requirements. Efficient fertigation methods need to be standardized
for such crops. Some examples of high-density plantations are given in
