Evaluation

Greenmount Campus and Horticulture and Plant Breeding Station, Loughgall

Introduction

Bramley’s Seedling production is an important horticulture sector in Northern Ireland covering 1745 hectares, owned by 420 growers and providing 500 full time and 1,000 part-time jobs. However, 69 percent of the orchard area is over 20 years old and tend to be difficult to pick due to the size and shape of the trees. The older orchards also tend to produce small fruit that is becoming increasingly difficult to market.

The need to replant using modern production systems is clearly identified as one of the ways to improve yield and quality. One such system is the high density orchard, where trees are planted at much higher densities. At these densities, earlier production combined with higher yield per unit area is anticipated. However, high density planting using feathered maiden Bramley’s Seedling trees has not been evaluated in Northern Ireland before. Hence, a project to identify the most appropriate density on two dwarfing rootstocks is outlined below. It is envisaged that this project will run over a period of 10 years. Costings, yield and fruit size are the main factors that will be measured.

Traditionally, Bramley’s Seedling on M9 rootstock is planted at 5.5 m between the rows and 3.7 m between the trees within the row giving a density of 500 trees per hectare. Bramley’s Seedling on M27 rootstock are planted at 3.7 m between the rows and 1.9 m between the trees within the row giving a density of 1510 trees per hectare.

The objective of Experiment No 1 is to evaluate three planting densities, using M9 and M27 rootstocks  to determine the most appropriate density for Bramley’s Seedling on dwarfing rootstocks under Northern Ireland conditions.

For Bramley’s Seedling on M9 rootstock, a shallow planting at density 2 (4.3 m x 2.4 m) is also included for comparison with those planted at normal depth at the same planting density. Shallow planting is reported to reduce plant vigour and induce early cropping.

Each treatment is a block of 33 plants replicated 3 times. Each block is also provided with 5 pollinators.

Trees arrived on 2 December 1999. Due to the very wet weather, planting was delayed until late January 2000. Annual updates on these trials will be provided at Open Days and in technical bulletins.