IFTA 2017 Report Of Pear Activities

1.The 2013 pear training/rootstock/spacing trial

The 2013 pear training/rootstock/spacing trial completed its 5th season. Cooperator sites include OR (T. Einhorn), CA (R. Elkins), and NY (T. Robinson). The experiment is a factorial design to evaluate (1) rootstock- OH×F87, OH×F69 and Pyrodwarf 233, (2) training system- Upright V, Bi-Axe, and Tall spindle and (3) in-row spacing- 3, 4.5, and 6 feet. Cultivars varied by site: OR (‘d’Anjou’), CA (‘Bartlett’), and NY(‘Bosc’).

Rootstock effects: Pyrodwarf 233 produced significantly smaller trees than either OH×F clone, irrespective of cultivar. OH×F 69 produced the largest trees with lower yield efficiency than OH×F 87, irrespective of cultivar. Although Pyro 2-33 produced the smallest trees, this only resulted in significantly higher yield efficiency for ‘Bosc’. Production of Bosc was ~14 bins per acre for all rootstocks. For ‘D’Anjou’, OH×F 87 and Pyro 2-33 produced roughly 50 fruit per tree (projected production of 23 bins per acre in the 5th leaf). For‘Bartlett’, OH×F87 outperformed the other rootstocks in production. Fruit size was generally good for all cultivars (ranging from 200 to 250 g) and was not consistently affected byrootstock.