Table 1.

The influence of soil amendments on growth, tree vitality, and mortality of Pyrus communis ‘Williams’ Bon Chrétien’ in Year 1.

Treatment	Tree vitality			Growth
Treatment	SPAD	PI	Pn	Fruit yield/tree (kg)	Crown volume	Mortality (%)
Control (no amendment)	38.7	6.2	4.01	5.8	0.60	20
Molasses pellets	42.3^ns	7.1*	4.45^ns	6.1^ns	0.68^ns	0
Biochar	44.5^ns	8.2*	4.48^ns	6.6^ns	0.77*	0
BOOST Organic granular	49.9*	8.2*	4.56^ns	6.8*	0.77*	0
BOOST Organic granular + biochar	50.8*	10.0*	4.66^ns	7.2*	0.88*	0
BOOST Organic granular + molasses pellets	47.9*	7.4*	4.38^ns	6.7*	0.72*	0
Molasses pellets + biochar	47.1*	9.4*	4.61^ns	7.0*	0.81*	0
BOOST Organic granular + molasses pellets + biochar	50.3*	11.1*	4.50^ns	6.8*	0.76*	0

Notes: All values mean of surviving trees from an initial number of 10. Asterisk (*) = significant differences between means (P = 0.05). P < 0.05 are considered significant based on Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference test. SPAD = estimated leaf chlorophyll content, PI = chlorophyll fluorescence, Pn = light-induced CO₂ fixation.