In recent years the biggest developments in fruit growing have come in the field of tree production, i.e. in the nursery industry. More specifically, with regard to the technology of PREFORMED TREES, the vegetative phase occurs in the nursery and the productive phase in the final orchard of destination; as a result, when the trees are transplanted in the orchards they are already ready to produce fruit. PREFORMED TREES are produced with a structure of branches and spores already formed in the nursery.

This structure allows growers to simplify their work, which may be done on the field (pruning, arrangement of posts, training in arches, incisions etc.), because they receive trees with the main structural part ready and, depending on the type of tree, branches and spores, production may start as early as 6-8 months after grafting.

All these advantages provide fruit growers with a faster return on their investment, given that the costs of maintaining orchards are high; furthermore, even if no production occurs, the trees are preserved. After their extraction, preformed trees undergo a process of selection through which they are divided into four categories:

   
These categories enable fruit growers to chose trees based on their needs, maintaining uniformity and standards after planting. The more branches a tree has, the faster it will fill up the spaces in the orchard and the earlier it will reach full production. The distances between trees may also vary according to the quality of the trees themselves: trees with more and bigger branches can be spaced further apart but the precocity of production will remain unchanged, since instead of using a greater number of trees per hectare, growers put larger trees that rapidly produce spores and branches. The final result is an orchard with fewer trees occupying its surface, which is thus easier to manage, has ample lighting and produces higher quality fruit without delaying production.