Trellis Height Effect on the Production Characteristics of Raspberry

Abstract

The paper presents two-year results on the effect of two different trellis heights (two different cane lengths) on the production characteristics of the 'Willamette' raspberry cultivar. In Variant 1, the trellis height was 185 cm, in most cases a standard height employed in raspberry plantations in Serbia. In Variant 2, the trellis height was 225 cm. The following parameters were examined: number of fruiting laterals per cane, average length of fruiting laterals, average fruit mass and yield per row meter and per unit of area. The results showed that the number of fruiting laterals per cane in Variants 1 and 2 was 16.28 and 21.88, respectively. The difference was statistically highly significant. The average fruiting lateral length was 47.32 cm in Variant 1 and 41.86 cm in Variant 2. As in the former case, the difference was statistically highly significant. The average raspberry fruit mass in Variant 1 was 3.91 g and in Variant 2 it was somewhat lower, up to 3.80 g, but the difference was statistically insignificant. The yield per row metre in Variant 1 was 2.87 kg or 14.34 t/ha. In Variant 2, the yield per row metre was 3.43 kg or 17.15 t/ha. Yield increase in Variant 2 was statistically highly significant. An increase in cane length (trellis height) in the 'Willamette' raspberry cultivar by 40 cm, or to the upper raspberry ground-harvesting limit, resulted in a 19.6% yield increase. A fruit mass decrease was observed in this variant, but it was not statistically significant.