COMPARISON OF SOLAXE AND SPANISH BUSH TRAINING SYSTEMS FOR 'RAINIER' AND 'VAN' SWEET CHERRIES IN THE CHILEAN CENTRAL ZONE GROWING AREA

Vegetative and reproductive traits of ‘Van’ and ‘Rainier’ sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) on Mazzard F12/1 rootstock, trained to either the Solaxe or Spanish bush orchard systems, were characterized in a 5-year-old experimental orchard at La Platina Research Center, Metropolitan Region, Chile, during the 2000-01 growing season. Solaxe trees had higher yields: 8.5 kg/tree for ‘Van’ and 7.7 kg/tree for ‘Rainier’, compared with Spanish bush, 5.2 and 4.2 kg/tree for ‘Van’ and ‘Rainier’, respectively. Fruit was distributed more evenly along the productive branches in the Solaxe training system. In addition, Solaxe training resulted in better structured trees and less wood removed at pruning. Spanish bush training resulted in larger shoots on longer and stronger trunk and limbs. Neither phenology nor fruit set were affected by training system for either cultivar, perhaps due to the youth of the trees. Both systems performed better than traditional cherry training systems used in Chile.