Apple trees supplied from the nursery as dormant buds in preference to maiden rods or branched trees: Thesis presented for completion of the National Diploma in Horticulture

Abstract

Many commercial orchardists wishing to expand or replant blocks of apple trees find delays of 2 or 3 years quite common in getting their trees from nurserymen. With the trend to semi-intensive plantings, the cost of establishment per acre has risen dramatically in part because of more trees per acre and inflation, but also because of the high price per tree. This high tree cost is due to the expensive process used to produce the trees in the nursery. These factors have caused some orchardists to plant dormant budded rootstocks, that is rootstocks which have been budded 2-or 3 months earlier but not grown on for an extra year. In this way the orchardist can obtain his trees more quickly after ordering and at a cheaper price. He also can shape the tree the way he wants it to grow, rather than depending on the nurseryman. It seems wasteful for the nurseryman to grow a large tree and then for the orchardist to cut half the growth back on planting. The 1973 report on the Official Survey of the N.Z. fruitgrowing industry, gives the number of apple trees planted over the years 1968-73 as 718,959 trees giving an annual planting and replacement of around 144,000 apple trees per year. The previous 5 yearly survey showed an annual planting rate of 78,000 apple trees. With the rapid trend to semi-intensive plantings, the 1973-78 survey still being compiled will probably show the annual planting rate to have increased to over 200,000 apple trees per year. With this large number of trees being planted each year, any system has merit which reduces time and price of the tree before planting. The "meadow orchard" concept being studied at Long Ashton Research Station in Bristol, England, has trees planted 12 to 15 inches apart each way giving 35,000 to 45,000 trees per acre! One of the biggest problems is that trees raised by budding or grafting onto rootstocks in the traditional way are far too expensive to plant in this meadow orchard system and one of the most difficult problems is finding ways of propagating the main varieties of apples much more cheaply than at present. With these factors in mind I thought a preliminary study should be made on the methods of fruit tree raising in use in New Zealand.