Performance of Apple Cultivars in the 1995 NE-183 Regional Project Planting: I Growth and Yield Characteristics

Abstract

A multi-site experiment to evaluate the performance of apple cultivars was established in 1995 with twenty different cultivars. The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate new and promising apple cultivars in a range of geographical and climatic areas within North America. All trees were propagated on M.9 and minimally pruned to encourage early bearing. At the end of the fifth growing season 'Shizuka' were the largest trees, and had the highest yields. 'Honeycrisp' and 'Braeburn' were among the smallest trees and had low cumulative yields. 'Gala Supreme', 'Golden Supreme' and 'Pristine' were among the least yield efficient. Across all sites, 'Fortune', 'Golden Supreme', 'Pristine', 'Suncrisp' and 'Yataka' had biennial bearing indices (BI) that suggested that they were more prone to biennial bearing. 'GoldRush' had the highest cumulative yield efficiency and cumulative crop load of all the cultivars tested. 'Arlet' had the highest mean number of fruit per year, while the largest fruit were produced by 'Shizuka'. 'Pristine' and 'Golden Supreme' had high levels of preharvest fruit drop. Days from full bloom to harvest varied depending upon cultivar with 'Pristine' maturing first and 'GoldRush' last. A stability analysis was performed for all variable measured. No cultivar proved perfectly stable. However, 'Fuji' had the fewest significant stability variances while 'Honeycrisp' had the most significant variances.