The palmette training system

The palmette system became successful because it improved orchard productivity by inducing earlier bearing and enabling higher planting densities than other contemporary systems, and also because it allowed the use of harvesting platforms, which reduced costs by greatly facilitating pruning and picking in comparison to open-centre trees.The palmette is best suited to medium-high planting densities (700-1,100 trees/ha in peach, and 1,500-2,000 in standard apple cvs.), with tree heights ranging from 2.5 m (apples on weak rooststocks) to over 4 m (peach in fertile soils). Because the Palmette system "squeezes" trees along the row, this system is not suitable for very high planting densities. When trees are planted too close, they lose production on the lower tier of branches to self-shading. Wherever a vigor-controlling factor is available (e.g. growth habit, rootstock, growth retardants, low-vigour environment, or combinations of them), the palmette may be less suitable than the slender spindle, low vase or even Y-trellis. By the same token, however, it is still widely used in deep, fertile soils for those species whose vigor is more difficult to control (e.g. peach, plum, apricot, pear on seedling). The modern palmette is a far cry from the original concept. Because of cost considerations it is currently developed as freely as possible (minimizing pruning, and thus improving early yield) in the first 3-4 years, given the constraint that a hedgerow must be formed. It is more labor-intensive to establish than other systems land requires trellising) but it is less expensive to maintain once the tree is formed.