Four-year-old Packham trees on Winter Nelis rootstock planted 22.5 cm (9 inches) apart on Open Tatura (9,876 trees per hectare, or 4,000 trees per acre). Although tree density is excessively high, this simple experiment clearly shows that tree vigor can be controlled, because growth of roots has been restricted. Much of the energy of the tree goes into producing fruit, instead of wood. You do not need many pears per tree to get a high production per hectare—40 pears per tree equates to 80 tonnes per hectare or 32 tons per acre. Many orchardists still believe that fruit trees need […]