Increasing orchard planting density has helped improve grower profits and yields but establishment costs can be high. It is believed that by using bi-axis trees the number of trees required during planting can be reduced while possibly improving yields and fruit quality. To test this possibility, an orchard of four cultivars (‘Brookfield Gala’, ‘Aztec Fuji’, ‘Honeycrisp’, and ‘Ruby Mac’) was established and trained to either Tall Spindle (TS) or Bi-axis (BA) at 1m x 4m spacing. After the third year of growth, all TS trees and half of BA trees were summer hedged, resulting in three systems to compare: 1) TS hedged; 2) BA hedged; and 3) BA non-hedged. Measurements of trunk cross sectional area (TSCA), phenology, yield, and fruit quality were recorded for seven years to calculate cumulative values. At the end of the study, TSCA was larger on TS trees compared to hedged or non-hedged BA trees across cultivars. Biennial bearing was lower with ‘Brookfield Gala’ and ‘Aztec Fuji’ compared to ‘Honeycrisp’ and ‘Ruby Mac’ and trended lower on hedged or non-hedged BA trees than TS trees. The hedged or non-hedged BA trees had higher cumulative yields compared to TS trees across cultivars. Fruit size was reduced on hedged or non-hedged BA trees compared to TS trees, but all three systems had similar fruit color, firmness, and soluble solids on average. After seven years, there was no obvious benefit of using hedged or non-hedged BA systems to improve fruit quality, but higher yield from BA trees over TS trees when planted at the same density, regardless of hedging during the summer, was achieved. We calculated that BA trees could be planted at 15% lower planting density than TS trees to achieve the same yield.
