The peach culture has been practiced for a long time in Brazil but a few studies were performed aiming to define choices of orchard management for increasing productivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate fruit production and annual growth rate of the trunk diameter in the third and fourth year after planting of peach-trees cv. "Chimarrita" on Capdeboscq rootstock. Four training systems were evaluated, as follow: I -spacing of 0,5 m among plants trained as "columnar axis"; II and III - spacing of 1 and 2 m, respectively trained as an "Y shape" and IV - 4,0 m as an "open vase" (traditional system). The space between tree rows was steady in 5,0 m for all the training systems. The orchard was implanted in July 1997 in the Experimental Farm of Centro Agropecuário da Palma, Universidade Federal de Pelotas located in a rural district of Capão do Leão, RS. The annual growth rate of the trunk diameter, productivity, physicochemical quality of fruits and rottenness occurrence were evaluated. The trunk rate was similar in both years, but a greater relative increasing was observed in 2000/2001 period for training system I. The productivity was higher in system I and II differing from the IV system, nonetheless the physicochemical quality and rottenness occurrence were similar in all systems.
Peach tree; training systems; planting density; productive aspect
