Effect of Pruning System on Yield Components of Two Summer-bearing Raspberry Cultivars

Abstract

Effects of annual pruning, alternate-year mowing, and primocane suppression on yield and its components for ‘Titan’ and ‘Royalty’ summer-bearing raspberries (Rubus idaeus and R. neglectus) were measured for 2 consecutive years. Cumulative yield was highest for primocane suppression and lowest for alternate-year mowing. Path analysis revealed that cane number per plant and number of fruitful laterals per cane were the most important yield components for both cultivars. Alternate-year mowing plots had higher cane numbers per plant than other treatments, but fewer fruitful laterals in the bottom and middle thirds of the canes. Annual primocane suppression increased numbers of fruitful laterals in the bottom and middle thirds of canes, resulting in increased yield compared to other treatments. Productivity was related to the amount of photosynthetically active radiation entering the canopy.

Vegetative and Reproductive Yield Components of Primocane-fruiting Red Raspberries

“…Crandall et al (3) demonstrated that although there was a positive relationship between cane vigor and fruit number, this only partially accounted for variation in yield. Nehrbas and Pritts (17) found that, with summer-bearing raspberries, cane number always had the strongest direct effect on yield and negative effects on all other yield components, especially fruit size. Further, fruit number per node did not have a strong direct effect on yield and cane thinning had a large, direct impact on yield through effects on number of fruiting nodes and fruit size (17).…”

“…Nehrbas and Pritts (17) found that, with summer-bearing raspberries, cane number always had the strongest direct effect on yield and negative effects on all other yield components, especially fruit size. Further, fruit number per node did not have a strong direct effect on yield and cane thinning had a large, direct impact on yield through effects on number of fruiting nodes and fruit size (17). Our results with primocanefruiting cultivars, as based on component analysis, indicated that retaining all primocanes should have a positive effect on yield without affecting fruit size.…”

Influence of Varietal Characteristics and Planting Schemes of Remontant Raspberries on their Productivity

“…Recent studies worldwide have focused on the effect of polyethylene biodegradable plastic mulch (Zhang et al, 2019), spotted wing drosophila (DiGiacomo et al, 2019), phytochemicals (Frias-Moreno et al, 2019), reduced nitrogen fertilizer rates (Lu et al, 2022), pruning practices (Nehrbas and Pritts, 1988;Gundersheim and Pritts, 1991) and yield components (Hoover et al, 1988;Freeman et al, 1989;Kantarbayeva et al, 2017) on the productivity of crops. Remontant raspberry is a group of raspberry varieties characterized by the ability to bear fruit on annual shoots (Kazakov et al, 2007;Pantsyreva et al, 2020).…”