SEARCH FOR A MORE DWARFING ROOTSTOCK FOR ‘CONFERENCE’

For most fruit growers the ideal tree is a tree that does not grow too vigorously, demands little labour and yields a good production and high quality every year.
In order to achieve this, our varieties are grafted or inoculated on a rootstock.
For the Belgian pear culture this is mostly Quince C or Quince Adams, two rootstocks with moderate vigour.
Though these two rootstocks satisfy in most cases, there are condi¬tions where trees with less vigour are needed.
In 2000 ‘Conference’ was planted on Pyrodwarf and in 2005 on Pigwa and S1. The most important disadvantage of these rootstocks is the excessive vigour, making them to come in production later than Quince C or Quince Adams.
In 2006 a new trial was planted with Quince H and C132. The vigour of both rootstocks has so far been similar to Quince C and Quince Adams.
Moreover, they showed less frost damage in winter 2009. As far as production is concerned, Quince H remains behind.
C132, on the other hand, obtains after 6 production years a comparable yield as Quince Adams.
The fruit size is significantly better.
The first experiences with Quince Eline teach us that the vigour of this root¬stock is similar to that of Quince C. But in 2011 and 2012 it yielded less.
In 2012 Quince Eline gave remarkably smoother pears, but in 2011 we could not observe this.
Altogether with this rootstock more experience is needed before it can be pushed forward as an alternative to Quince C or Quince Adams.

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

J. Vercammen, A. Gomand

Pyrodwarf, Pigwa, S1, Quince H, C132, frost sensitivity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1058.60