Growth and Cropping of Two Pear Cultivars as Affected by the Type of Nursery Trees

The study was conducted in 2001–2012 next to Wrocław (southwestern Poland). The purpose of this research was to assess the influence of type of nursery trees of pear cvs ‘Carola’ and ‘Dicolor’ budded on quince S₁ rootstock on growth and cropping, as well as fruit quality of two pear cultivars. The trees were planted in the spring of 2001 in 4 replications with 5 trees per plot. Trees were planted in rows with spacing 1.2 × 3.5 m (2381 trees per hectare). Three types of nursery trees, all without feathers, were planted: two-year-old (3 years in a nursery), one-year-old maidens (2 years in a nursery) and annual grafts (only 1 year in a nursery). Tree canopies were formed as a spindle and were trained in the Güttingen-V system. Until the twelfth year after planting, growth and yield were significantly affected by the type of nursery trees. One-year-old maidens were characterized by the strongest vigor in orchard, while pears planted as two-year-old trees grew rather weak (especially with ‘Dicolor’ cv.). Planting two-year-old trees didn’t have any clear positive influence on tree cropping in the orchard. The final results of the study proved that trees planted as annual grafts, irrespective of cultivar, yielded significantly worse. The type of nursery trees had no clear influence on mean fruit weight.