Resumo

QUEIROS, Filipa; SOUSA, Rui; REIS, José Manuel  e  FALCAO, José Maria. Almond training systems in a super high-density planting system: five years of results. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2023, vol.46, n.2, pp.71-80.  Epub 01-Jun-2023. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/rca.31333.

In recent years, the almond tree has been recognized as an opportunity culture, due to its expansion, especially in the Alentejo, where intensive production based on the use of new cultivars and rootstocks, and new techniques of training and pruning, has positioned the almond culture in a prominent position in the nuts and dried fruits sector. Although the almond tree is currently the most widely planted culture and has experienced significant technological development, the challenges raised by the need to attain high levels of productivity are considerable, in order to make the production models based on intensification profitable. One of these challenges is related to the adaptation of new cultivars with different growing habits to be trained in narrow forms suitable for mechanised pruning and harvesting. In this perspective, the objective of this work is to compare the development of almond cultivars ‘Soleta’ and ‘Lauranne’ grafted onto ‘Rootpac 20’ and planted in a super-intensive system, when trained in a central axis, three-axis palmette and hedge systems. The trunk section area as a means of evaluating the vigour of each one of the trees sampled, together with the amount of the wood suppressed with pruning and the orchard productivity were evaluated, as well as the quality of the almonds produced throughout the five years of the trial. The results obtained indicate that the vigour of trees was affected by the training systems. However, the weight of the wood removed during summer and winter pruning was higher in axis system, especially in the ‘Lauranne’ cultivar. The quantitative evaluation of the production showed that this cultivar in palmette training system produced more than in hedge or in axis systems, while in ‘Soleta’ trees the accumulated production was higher in the axis system. In terms of quality parameters, training system did not affect the biometric parameters of fruits, with the exception of the kernel yield of the ‘Soleta’ almonds. The results suggest that the training system affects the productive behavior of the almond trees under super-intensive model, which varies with the cultivar.

Palavras-chave : Intensification; pruning; mechanisation; productivity; kernel yield.

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