Growth and Fruiting in High Density Apple Planting System, in Cluj-Napoca area, Romania

In the recent years high-density apple crop has gained the greatest spread. This happenedbecause, on the one hand, this kind of orchard produces fruit from the second year recovering theinvestment in about three years, and on the other hand, they have high economic efficiency. In thissense, the evaluation of ten new apple cultivars (‘Florina’, ‘Jonagold’, ‘Jonica’, ‘Top Red’, ‘Mutsu’,‘Granny Smith’, ‘Golden Reinders’, ‘Gala’, ‘Topaz’, ‘Pinova’) in conditions of Cluj-Napoca,Romania, in high density growing system in 2010-2011 was studied. The planting system chosen forthe experimental plot was 3.5 m between rows and 0.9 m between trees within row, which resulted ina high density orchard with 3174 trees/ha. The trees were grafted on M9 rootstock. Differencesstatistically assured among cultivars regarding growth traits and yield were recorded. All cultivarshave achieved high cumulative yield, most exceed 50 t/ha. Only two cultivars, ‘Mutsu’ and ‘Top Red’,failed to exceed this level of 50 t/ha. The highest yield was registered with ‘Topaz’ (57.16 t/ha),followed closely by ‘Jonagold’ (56.89 t/ha) and ‘Pinova’ (56.78 t/ha). The most recommendedcultivars for setting up new orchards in the climatic conditions of Cluj-Napoca, are ‘Pinova’, ‘Topaz’,‘Florina’, ‘Granny Smith’.