Relationships between trunk radial growth and fruit yield in apple and pear trees on size-controlling rootstocks.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Understanding the mutual co-ordination of vegetative and reproductive growth is important in both agricultural and ecological settings. A competitive relationship between vegetative growth and fruiting is often highlighted, resulting in an apparent trade-off between structural growth and fruit production. However, our understanding of factors driving this relationship is limited.

Methods

We used four scions grafted onto a series of size-controlling rootstocks to evaluate the relationships between the annual fruit yield and radial growth of trunks, branches and roots. To assess tree radial growth, we measured ring widths on extracted tree cores, which is an approach not frequently used in a horticultural setting.

Key results

We found that the yield

SUBMITTER: Plavcova L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9510948 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature