Initial Results from the Evaluation of Plum Cultivars Grown in a Very Dense Planting

An experimental orchard that included 25 cultivars was established in the spring of 2006. The experimental set included mostly novelties that have been recently bred in Germany and some standards currently grown in the Czech Republic. From each cultivar 3 trees grafted on St. Julian A rootstock were planted without replication in the spacing 4x1 m. Trees were trained as slender spindles using mostly summer pruning. In the orchard, the following characteristics were evaluated: flower and fruit sets, tree vigour based upon the measurement of trunk-cross sectional area and canopy volume, time of flowering, time of fruit ripening and yields per tree. The most vigorous according to the canopy volume were Tophit, Elena President, Presenta and Topking, whereas the cultivars Toptaste, Hanita, Cacanska Lepotica, Top 2000 and Katinka grew the weakest. The cultivar Topstar Plus had the highest yields followed by Topend Plus, Topstar, Jojo and Toptaste, whereas the least productive was Ruth Gerstetter, followed by Topgigant Plus, Haganta and Top 2000.