PRODUCTION AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL QUALITY OF FRUITS IN 'VALENCIA' ORANGE TREES WITH DIFFERENT PRUNING INTENSITIES AND FREQUENCIES

The pruning in citrus can be applied with the objective to control vegetative growth and renew fruiting branches. This research aimed to evaluate different manual pruning regimes in young orchards of 'Valencia' Orange, grown in conventional management. It was used an orchard with spacing 5.0 x 2.5 m, established in 2001 at Montenegro-RS, Brazil. The treatments, starting in 2004, were: A - control, without pruning; B - annual pruning of 15%; C - biennial pruning of 15%; D - biennial pruning of 30% and E - three-year 30% pruning of the canopy volume. The experiment had a randomized complete-block design, with four-trees plots and four replications. It was evaluated the number of fruits, total fruit mass production and average weight fruit in the crops 2006, 2007 and 2008. Aspects relating to fruit quality, total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity (TTA) and ratio (TSS/TTA) on juice were assessed. The manual pruning does not alter significantly the cumulative yield of three crops, nor physical-chemical and fruits quality in orchards of 'Valencia' orange under the age of seven, with conventional management system.