Vegetative Growth and Productivity of Apple Trees in a Replanted Orchard in Estonia

Long-term cultivation of fruit trees leads to soil fatigue. It is a condition caused by the combined effects of adverse physical, chemical, and biological soil factors. In the experiment, the removal of an old apple orchard during its amortization phase was studied using stump grinding with a stump grinder. In the old apple orchard, intercrops such as cereals, white sweet clover (Melilotus albus), and many-leaved lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) were grown. The intercrops were cultivated for four years. The selected apple cultivars for the experiment were ‘Antei’, ‘Auksis’, ‘Lobo’, ‘Tiina’, and ‘Vahur’, all grafted onto the dwarfing rootstock B9. In the old orchard, stump grinding combined with the use of green manure over four years improved tree height and trunk thickness in the new planting. Flower bud formation and fruit development depended strongly on the cultivar-rootstock combination. Fruit set and yield formation in apple orchards are determined primarily by the genetic characteristics of each cultivar. Tree height and trunk diameter continue to reflect the effects of soil preparation carried out up to a decade earlier. In a fully productive orchard, the average total yield per tree is higher in the variant with grinded stumps, although this had no effect on the average fruit weight.