SUMMARY
This paper deals with the impact of some soil maintenance systems upon ‘Generos’ apples’ quality and production, cultivated in the Didactic Station Timisoara of our University. We studied and experimented less pollutant soil maintenance systems, mainly by using plants as green fertilizers. There were eight experimental variants: V1 – black field (2 manual hoeing + 2 mechanical hoeing) – control, V2 – seeding and incorporation in the soil with green manure (white clover), V3 – seeding and incorporation in the soil with green manure (bird’s-foot trefoil), V4 – seeding with grass mixture 1 (2 manual hoeing), V5 - seeding with grass mixture 2 (2 manual hoeing), V6 - seeding with grass mixture + mulching, V7 - seeding with grass mixture + Roundup 360 SL (3 l/ha), V8 – mixed field, Roundup 360 SL (3 l/ha) + mechanical hoeing. There were determined the physical features of apples (average weight, average diameter and average height) the refract meter dry substance and the sugars content, the total acidity (malic acid), the total minerals, the spectrophotometry vitamin C content and the microelements (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu) through atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), as well as the production obtained. The best results were obtained in those experimental variants where we used green manure (Trifolium repens or Lotus corniculatus).