Tree growth and some other characteristics of new columnar apple cultivars bred in Holovousy, Czech Republic

Abstract

Several characteristics related to tree growth, their fruitage and resistance against scab and powdery mildew were assessed during 2007–2008 on five new cultivars in comparison with the ancestral McIntosh Wijcik, in which 4 out of 5 had their pedigree. In several plots established between 1998 and 2006, the trees, which were on different rootstocks predominantly planted in spacing 4 × 0.5 m, were grown as vertical cordons practically without any pruning or shaping. Besides the first years after the planting these columnar trees generated very limited side branching. The cultivars mutually differ in tree vigour, spurring density, and size of fruiting spurs. Mean annual prolongation of central axes in the case of the trees on vigorous rootstocks varied within 30.8–57.5 cm, however, on M 9 rootstock it was distinctly shorter (23.4–34.1 cm). Beyond cultivar and rootstock the length of the annual prolongation was also significantly influenced by fruit set level. Trees of the Kordona cultivar were generally the most vigorous while those of Pidi were the weakest. The biennial pattern of bearing observed to an extent on nearly all the cultivars was connected with tendency to over-crop the trees. The highest annual yield equal to 10.3 kg was generated on trees of Kordona on MM 106, which corresponds to a total harvest of 25.7 t/ha. Cultivars Herald and Slendera possessed combined resistance both to scab and powdery mildew, whereas Kordona and Cumulus were resistant only to scab, but were in different degrees susceptible to mildew.

Photosynthetic potential of Malus domestica columnar group

“…Entirely new perspectives in the evolution of the apple orchard have opened up with the discovery of a spontaneous mutant 'Wijcik' ('Mcintosh Wijcik'), which has become the basis for the selection of columnar cultivars around the world (Tobutt, 1984(Tobutt, , 1994Jacob, 2007). The mutation is characterized by an unusual type of crown and plant habit, as well as the enhanced establishment of generative organs (Blažek, 1990;Blažek & Křelinová, 2011;Wada et al, 2018;Sun et al, 2020Sun et al, , 2021. The identification of the columnar gene (Co) in 'Wijcik' has opened up fundamentally new opportunities in the breeding of apple trees, specifically in terms of plant structure and an increased potential yield of more than 200 t/ha (Okada et al, 2020), which has been observed in cultivars with a columnar-type of growth.…”

Molecular Mechanisms Regulating the Columnar Tree Architecture in Apple

“…However, columnar apple trees generally suffer from susceptibility to biennial bearings [11]. Blazek and Krelinova [16] reported biennial bearing in five new columnar apple cultivars, most likely because of the proximately between the Co locus and biennial bearing quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in the shared linkage group [17]. Iwanami et al [18] proposed a new labor-saving method for processing columnar apple trees using a thinning strategy for biennial bearings.…”

A rapid real‐time PCR assay for detecting columnar growth in apples (Malus × domestica)

“…The above‐mentioned characteristics could therefore make the growing of columnar apple cultivars very attractive for growers. Unfortunately, they also have a tendency for alternate bearing (Blazek & Krelinova, 2011), and the fruit quality of the first columnar cultivars was considerably compromised (Petersen & Krost, 2013). Currently registered columnar cultivars from the second generation of crossings, such as ‘Cumulus’, ‘Rondo’, ‘Redcats’ or ‘Pompink’, have much better characteristics, are usually resistant to scab, and find their utilization in small gardens, narrow sites and in tubs; however, their planting in orchards remains limited and better cultivars are awaited.…”