INFLUENCE OF VARIETY UPON RECOVERY OF YIELDING POTENTIAL THROUGH OVERGRAFTING IN OLD APPLE ORCHARDS

In Romania, after a never-ending interval of transition - the apple orchards have grown old, sorts became obsolete and fruits are sending behind by foreign competition [1, 2]. As these orchards cannot be replaced overnight, and setting up new orchards means large investments difficult to sustain financially, we have to turn our attention to overgrafting old apple orchards. In view of studying the aftermath of overgrafting the old orchards, the experiments were placed in a plantation situated at Călacea, County Sălaj set up in 1975, having the plantation space of 4 x 3 m (833 trees/ha) and two varieties :Jonathan and Golden Delicious grafted on MM 106. Overgrafting was performed in 1998 on Golden Delicious, with detached branch and, as biological material; the varieties utilized being those introduced by Tab. 1. Six experimental variants in three repeats were introduced in the experiment. Of the data in tab. 1, there results that overgrafting is a fast method - efficient and less costly - of recovering the yielding potential of old, unproductive orchards. The largest yields of fruit were obtained with Jonagold (24.41 t/ha), Golden Reinders (22.28 t/ha), Topaz (20.57 t/ha), followed by Pinova, Mutsu. All new varieties yielded larger production statistically ensured as to Jonathan, a “classic” variety. Golden Reinders, Topaz and Pinova displayed a similar comportment. Jonagold, Golden Reinders and Topaz also produce very large fruit (182.73-234.26 g) and of quality, market competitive. Mutsu produced the largest fruit (267.9 g; 303.18 cm3).