COMPARISON AMONG DIFFERENT PLANTING SYSTEMS FOR 'CONFERENCE'

In order to help fruit growers with the choice of the planting system, 7 different planting systems for ‘Conference’ on quince Adams were planted in the spring of 2002. Besides production and quality a lot of attention was paid to costs and labour. In order to enable a precise comparison, the test results of one planting system (bush-spindle shape) have been fixed at 100%. The other planting systems included in the test were: the hedge of Tienen, the long pruning, the candlestick system, an intensive V-system, the spindle and the “Drapeau” system. At planting, the “Drapeau” system, the hedge of Tienen and the long pruning were cheaper in construction than the bush-spindle shape and the candlestick system. For this last system placing bamboo stakes demanded extra labour. The intensive V-system and the spindle (trees) were the highest in cost and labour. From the third year of growth, the costs were more or less the same for all the systems, except for the “Drapeau” system. The high costs of this system from the second till the sixth growing year were the result of placing extra wires to complete the system. The long pruning system and the hedge of Tienen had the lowest total costs after 9 years of growth. The highest yields were obtained with the long pruning, followed by the “Drapeau” system and the intensive V-system. All the other planting systems obtained comparable yields, which were 20 to 30% lower with respect to the long pruning. Over nine years, the largest pears were found in the candlestick system and the intensive V-system, while the smallest were found in the long pruning. After 9 years, the best financial result is obtained by the long pruning, followed by the “Drapeau” system and the intensive V-system. The financial result was calculated starting from the real costs and the real labour. The calculation of the total costs after 9 years does not consider depreciation of investment costs.