Influence of tree architecture on fruit quality in cherry /Prunus avium L./ cv. Petrovka

Abstract

The bearing branches of thirty-year-old cherry trees of the cultivar Petrovka were analysed. Branches were decomposed into growth units of different ages. The lengths of (unequally old) growth units were measured, and the weight and number of fruit of individual spurs were defined. The following factors were investigated: the influence of the age of wood, the influence of the spur age, the effects of the number of fruit per spur, and the effects of branching on the fruit weight. The aging of wood and spurs does not cause the decrease in average fruit weight, neither does the quantity of fruit per spur influence the average fruit weight. However, the decrease in average weight of fruit can be noticed when we move from primary to quaternary branches. Great similarity in the yield quality (quality that refers to fruit mase) can be ascribed to special tree architecture (typical basitonic growth) of the cultivar Petrovka.