Sistemas de condução e irrigação suplementar no crescimento, na produção e na qualidade dos frutos de pessegueiro ‘BRS Rubramoore’

Abstract

The expansion of peach growing in western Santa Catarina State, Brazil, depends on training systems that reconcile high planting density, yield and fruit quality, and on knowledge of the crop's response to supplementary irrigation in a humid subtropical climate. This study evaluated the influence of seven training systems; open vase, Y-shaped, central leader, double leader, triple leader, quadruple leader and Guyot, at densities from 571 to 2,500 plants ha⁻¹, and of two water regimes, supplementary drip irrigation and rainfed, on vegetative growth, yield, plant water status and the physicochemical quality of 'BRS RubraMoore' peach fruit in Chapecó, Santa Catarina. The experiment followed a completely randomised split-plot design with four replicates in the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 seasons. Training system determined vegetative growth in both seasons: trunk diameter followed planting density and leader diameter the number of permanent axes, and expressing variables per plant and per unit area produced opposite rankings among systems. Yield responded to the interaction between factors only in 2024/2025,whentheGuyotyielded6.70tha⁻¹underrainfedconditionsand3.58tha⁻¹underirrigation. Soluble solids differed among systems only in the first season, and skin colour did not differ among systems in either season. Supplementary irrigation altered neither plant water status nor the mean performance of the orchard, except for skin colour in 2025/2026, as the balance between rainfall and reference evapotranspiration was positive in every fruit-filling month. In a young orchard under a humid subtropical climate, training system is the main determinant of growth and productive organisation, and the evaluation of supplementary irrigation should be directed to the post-harvest period, when water deficits were concentrated.