02068naa a2200181 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000110006024500850007126000090015652014290016565300210159465300180161565300200163365300200165365300170167377301960169010818502011-11-04       2007    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aEpagri  aInfluence of Rootstock and Plant Density on Yield of Royal Gala Apple in Brazil.  c2007  aBrazil became self-sufficient in apple production through the last 35 years. Recent data show a yearly production of about 800,000 tons of apples, with a productivity of no more than 35-40 t/ha. This quite low productivity of the commercial orchards may be due also to the lack of good rootstocks for the climatic and soil conditions prevalent in Southern Brazil. Smaller trees improve light penetration inside the canopy, reduce shading between rows, and require less labor to perform the regular activities in an orchard. This makes growers to look forward for less costly orchards with simultaneous high yield of good fruit quality. Dwarf rootstocks are a helpful tool to fulfill this objective. In 1997, the experiment was set in S??o Joaquim ? SC, Brazil, in a RCB design. The treatments, a factorial 2X3 with 4 replications, were the rootstocks M9 and M26 with ?Royal Gala? on top, and 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m between trees in the row and 4 m between rows, corresponding to 5,000, 2,500, and 1,666 trees per hectare, respectively. Yield increased with orchard age and tree density. Yield increased up to age 6, and then decreased up to age 8, when it increased again reaching a maximum on age 10 in all spacing studied. Simultaneously evaluating yield, fruit size and fruit color permits to conclude that ?Royal Gala? on top of M9 or M26 performs better when trees are spaced 1.0 m in the row, with 2,500 trees per hectare.  aDwarf rootstocks  aFruit quality  aMalus domestica  aOrchard density  aProductivity  tIn: INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF TEMPERATE ZONE FRUTS IN THE TROPICS AND SUBTROPICS, 8., 2007, Florian??polis, SC. Program and Abstracts... Pelotas, RS: Embrapa Clima Temperado, 2007. p. 89-90.