Growth, Yield and Quality Performance of Pear (Pyrus communis L.) cv. ‘Santa Maria’ under High Density Planting

: The present study was carried out to determine the effect of quince rootstocks (BA29, QA and MC) on plant growth, fruit quality and yield of ‘Santa Maria’ pear cultivar in 2020 and 2021. In this study, significant differences were determined by all growth, yield and quality parameters except for trunk diameter (TD), trunk cross-sectional area (TCSA), canopy volume, fruit stalk thickness, acidity, total soluble solids (TSS) in terms of research years and rootstocks from analysis of variance. Tree height, annual shoot length, leaf area, fruit weight, fruit width, and fruit length was lower in the MC rootstock than in the others. In the case of research years, out of annual shoot growth in 2020, all other parameters were higher in 2021. Fruit stalk length, fruit stalk thickness and fruit firmness were higher on MC rootstock than BA29 and QA. There was an insignificant difference between rootstocks in terms of TSS. The highest L* was in QA and MC; chroma was in QA and hue angle was in BA29 rootstock. The number of fruit was the highest (139.01 pieces/tree) in BA29 in 2021 and the lowest in MC (11.97 pieces/tree) in 2020. The highest yield per tree (30.62 kg), yield per hectare (58484.2 kg), yield per trunk cross-sectional area (2.24 kg/cm 2 ) and yield per canopy volume (71.21 kg/m 3 ) were measured in QA in 2021. In conclusion, the yield efficiency of ‘Santa Maria’ pear cultivar under high density planting on QA was better than other combinations in 2021. Since the plants on which the research is carried out are still young, it may be recommended to continue the research for many years to determine the most suitable rootstock.