The cultivation of trees on poorly growing rootstocks not only enables high yields to be obtained early, but at the same time it creates better conditions for mechanization of care treatments and allows to significantly increase the efficiency of manual work during fruit picking.
Thanks to the selection of frost-resistant pads and dwarfing inserts, the possibility of introducing weak-growing trees to the orchards on a larger scale appeared. Soon, more than half of the apple trees produced in nurseries will be improved on poorly growing rootstocks. However, this cannot be forgotten, that semi-dwarf trees, and even more so, dwarf trees have high soil requirements, and they do not tolerate periods of prolonged drought poorly, or prolonged excess water in the soil. Trees on these rootstocks, if they are not rationally cared for, they are also very sensitive to debilitating diseases, such as crayfish, gangrene or ring rot of the root neck.
When planning an orchard in an area with diversified soil and uneven humidity ratios, the best areas should be designated for trees on poorly growing rootstocks., and in the remaining area, provide trees on seedlings.
The older orchards in Poland are dominated by trees with circular crowns. Their opposition, most common in southern Europe, trees are run in rows formed according to strictly defined rules. However, the research did not confirm the superiority of formed lines in our climate. On the other hand, good results are obtained by leading tree crowns in a flattened form towards the rows.
The cultivation of trees on poorly growing rootstocks not only enables high yields to be obtained early, but at the same time it creates better conditions for mechanization of care treatments and allows to significantly increase the efficiency of manual work during fruit picking.
