Evaluation of yield components and fruit marketability of Ziziphus jujuba ‘Huizao’ with different cultivation modes

Abstract: 【Objective】The study aimed to compare the production components and fruit marketability of different cultivation modes of Ziziphus jujuba‘Huizao’and establish new cultivation modes suitable for mechanized high-quality production in Xinjiang.【Methods】A orchard of Ziziphus jujuba‘Huizao’with traditional cultivation mode(small crown sparse layer pattern with spacing of 1.0 m×1.5 m), was established in 2015. At the beginning of 2017, the orchard was partially transformed into three new planting patterns, namely, hedge shape (M1), main trunk shape (M2) and Y-shape (M3) with spacing of 1.0 m×4.5 m, and crown height at 2.5-3.0 m. The trees started bearing fruits in the same year. In 2019 we evaluated e production components and fruit marketability of different cultivation modes. The original planting mode was used as the control (CK). Each model was set up with three repeated plots, and three trees with similar growth were selected from each of the four patterns in each plot. The yield com- position and fruit commodity of different cultivation modes were evaluated by means of statistical anal-ysis.【Results】Variance analysis showed that there were significant differences in the number and length of annual secondary branches, perennial secondary branches, annual branches and perennial branches among different cultivation modes. The number and length of annual secondary branches of M2 were significantly more than those of M1, M3 and CK. Among them, the number of annual second-ary branches of M2 was 12 branches per plant, which was 100.0%, 33.3% and 71.4% more than those of M1, M3 and CK, respectively. The length of annual secondary branches of M2 was 31.7%, 38.5% and 50.0% longer than those of M1, M3 and CK. Compared with M1, M2 and M3, the number and length of perennial secondary branches of the CK was 12.0%, 33.3% and 47.4% more than those of M1,M2 and M3. The length of perennial secondary branches of M2 was 20.0%, 35.0% and 58.8% longer than those of M1, M3 and CK. The number of annual branches hanging of M2 was 148.7%, 76.4% and 162.2% more than those of M1, M3 and CK respectively. There was no significant difference between M1 and M3, but the lengths of branch hanging of M1 and M3were significantly longer than those of M2 and CK. There were significant differences between M1 and M2, M3 and CK patterns in the num-ber and the length of perennial branch hanging. Among them, M1 had the largest number of jujube sus-pensions which was 11.4%, 46.3% and 13.7% more than those of M2, M3 and CK, respectively. There was no significant difference between M1 and M3 in the length of perennial branch hanging, but they were significantly longer than those of M2 and CK. The single fruit weight of M1 was 10.8%, 20.9% and 32.7% larger than those of M2, M3 and CK, respectively. The yield, of M1 was 19.9%, 37.4% and 34.9% higher than those of M2, M3 and CK, respectively. There were significant differences in fruit commodity rate among different cultivation patterns. The special and first-class fruit rate of M1 was 28.5%, 91.7% and 147.0% higher than those of M2, M3 and CK, respectively. M1 had higher commer-cial value than other models in this experiment, followed by M2 and M3, and CK had poor commodity.Correlation analysis showed that the coefficient of variation (CV) of fruit commodity rate and the annu-al secondary branch was the largest (44.67), and the hanging length of the perennial branches was small-est (7.96). There were four main factors that had significant correlation with the yield, including the number of perennial secondary branch, the length of perennial secondary branch, the number of hang-ing branch and the weight of single fruit. There were 7 factors that had significant correlation with the commodity rate of fruit (special + first-class fruit), they were the annual secondary branch length, the perennial secondary branch length, the annual branch hanging length, the number and length of perenni-al branch, the single fruit weight and the yield per plant. Path analysis showed that increasing the num-ber of hanging branch and the single fruit weight could improve the commodity rate of fruits. The com-prehensive evaluation score was: M1 > M2 > M3 > CK.【Conclusion】Among the different planting pat-terns, M1 and M2 were more suitable for local standardized mechanical production of Ziziphus jujuba‘Huizao’, and M1 had more prominent advantages, followed by M3.