PERFORMANCE OF ‘AFRICAN DELIGHT’ PLUMS ON SEVERAL ROOTSTOCKS AND PLANTED ON TWO DIFFERENT SOIL SITUATIONS

‘African Delight’ plum trees (Prunus salicina) on 10 rootstocks were planted at Simondium, South Africa, on soils containing 93.4% sand, 1.5% silt and 5.1% clay (pH 1M KCl 6.5). Although drainage was installed and the trees were planted on ridges, surface water may persist for short periods after heavy rainfall due to lateral flow off the adjacent high ground.
The soil was fumigated before planting to suppress parasitic nematodes.
In a second trial, ‘African Delight’ were planted on 11 rootstocks in Robertson where the soil (62.1% very fine sand, 7.6% clay and 5.4% silt; pH 7.6 (1M KCl) is infested with Criconemoides xenoplax. At Simondium, trees on Marianna and Maridon rootstocks performed best, while those on Adara and Cadaman gave low yields.
Single fruit weight was significantly greater from trees on Marianna than Adara and Flordaguard.
At Robertson, trees on GF 677, Cadaman, Atlas and Cuche Picudo performed well in terms of both yield and fruit weight.
Flordaguard also performed well, but yellowing due to iron-induced chlorosis is intensifying with time.
Trees on Marianna, Maridon and Tsukuba 5 produced fruit having low fruit weight.
Rootstocks SAPO 778 and Tskuba 5 induced low yields from ‘African Delight’ at Robertson.

X International Symposium on Integrating Canopy, Rootstock and Environmental Physiology in Orchard Systems

P.J.C. Stassen, J. Wooldridge, P.D. Haasbroek, M. Booyse

Prunus salicina, Marianna, water table, free lime, ring nematodes

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1058.56