162 The Influence of Root Restriction on Flowering, Fruiting, Tree Growth, Yields, and Fruit Quality of Apple Trees

`Fuji'/MM.111, `Pink Lady'/M.7A, and `Summerfield'/M.7A apple trees were planted in several types of individual root restrictive bags in the field in 1995. Bags were made of Knit and Woven fabrics, Galvanize hardware cloth (6.4 cm) with various holes sizes and of different bag volumes. The bags confined the development of large roots to within the bag. Roots that penetrated the bag resulted in root branching and large root inhibition. As the roots enlarged, roots penetrating the bags were restricted in diameter by the fabric hole size. Roots enlarged to some degree on both sides of the fabric holes but were not killed by girdling within the first few years. Root restriction bags decreased trunk caliper, shoot growth, pruning weights, number of cuts per tree, increased flowering, fruit numbers, and weight per tree. Fruit firmness, soluble solids and color was increased and starch was lower than the nonbagged controls. In cage and tank trials pine and/or meadow voles easily penetrated all of the fabric and polypropylene bags within 24 h, except for the galvanized hardware cloth (6.4 cm). Susceptibility of each material to vole damage was tested by placement of an apple inside a small bag of each. Root restriction bags seemed to be a viable alternative to dwarfing rootstocks for control of tree size, early flowering, and early fruiting.