One of the requirements for early and profitable fruit cropping is the quality of trees used for orchard establishment. Nursery tree quality is influenced by many factors, among which the method of tree propagation plays an important role. In these experiments, the knip-boom (KB) trees produced in the 3-year cycle, from either sleeping buds (B) or bench-grafts (G), were compared in terms of tree quality parameters. B-trees outperformed G-trees in trunk diameter, total shoot extension, and in the number of shoots > 10 cm. No significant differences were found in such features as tree height, apical dominance and the percent of the number of shoots suitable for tree training. Studies on spatial configuration of lateral shoots and their length did not show any essential differences in the shape of canopy between both tree types. However, lateral shoots of B-trees were significantly longer than those of G-trees. Linear correlations between different quality characteristics in both types of trees demonstrated greater strength of either positive or negative correlations in G-compared with B-trees. We have not found any essential differences between B- and G-trees in nursery tree performance; therefore for a full evaluation of the trees produced by either method of propagation should be based on the analysis of nursery production economics and orchard performance of the trees (B and G) used.

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