New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts
Responses of peach trees to modified pruning
1. Vegetative growth
SHAO-HUA LI
XUE-PING ZHANG
ZHAO-QING MENG
XUN WANG
The Horticulture Department
Beijing Agricultural University
100094 Beijing
The People's Republic of China
Abstract An experiment on 5-year-old `Qing-feng' and
6-year-old `Yan-hong' peach trees (Prunus persica L.) compared a dormant
"long pruning" (LP) treatment with a traditional "short pruning" (SP) treatment
near Beijing, China. The responses of tree vegetative growth were studied on
length and number of new shoots, seasonal evolution of leaf number,
distribution and general growth evolution of new shoots along 1-year-old wood,
and rejuvenation of wood older than 1-year-old. Results showed that LP had
several advantages over SP: moderate vegetative growth of tree, resulting in
reduced average length of new shoots and total growth of new shoots per tree;
more rapid foliage development in the early growing season; and enhanced
capacity for shoot rejuvenation, i.e., more new shoots occurring from wood
older than 1 year. Moreover, in contrast to the SP trees, the longest new
shoots on LP trees occurred at the basal position of 1-year wood. The LP method
for pruning peach trees may therefore be superior to than the traditional SP
technique, especially in regions where climate and soil type favor vigorous
tree growth.
Keywords Prunus persica; long pruning; wood
rejuvenation; leaf area development; shoot growth
New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 1994, Vol. 22:
401-409
0114-0671/94/2204-0401 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1994
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (519K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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