Summary:

The experiment was conducted in Research Station belonging to department of Horticulture at Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences. The growth and the yielding of ‘Jonagored' cv. apple trees was estimated. The trees were planted two methods: traditional and in ridges. Planting in ridges consists in setting trees on the top of the ground, fastening them to the wire stretched along the row and hilling their root with the soil from the space between rows. The trees were trained in three systems of soil cultivation: herbicide fallow, mulching with sawdust and agro textile. Additionally a part of the trees in herbicide fallow was irrigation by using drip irrigation. The research was conducted in years 2005-2008 in the orchard in full period of fruiting. The trees of ‘Jonagored' on M9 rootstock were planted in 3,5 x 0,5 m (5714 trees · ha-1) spacing in spring 2000. The estimation included: vegetative growth on the basis of number and sum of length of one-year-old shoots longer than 20 cm. The influence of these factors on the weight and number of deleted shoots during annual pruning was determined. The results showed that irrigation stimulates the growth of trees planted in high density on dwarf rootstock irrespective of planting method. However, stronger the elongative growth does not mean, more intensive pruning