Articles
ROOTSTOCK SELECTION FOR PLUM TREES IN YUGOSLAVIA
This is why problems about plum-tree growing have great importance in the Yugoslavian fruit production.
The main variety Pozegaca (common Quetsche) is pre-dominant in the plum zone, and is our most representative plum variety.
Other plum varieties have been only lately introduced in our great plantations.
But there are still numerous problems to be solved in the orchards planted with Pozegaca.
Among these we quote: improvement of the variety by size increase, resistance to viruses, choice of rootstock; they are the most important, followed by problems concerning enrichment of the sortment.
One of the basic problems in the Pozegaca variety is the rootstock choice.
Up to now the variety was propagated especially by grafting on its own shoot (suckering from the root) or on Myrobalan seedlings.
Several specialists (1;5) considered Pozegaca suckers as very good rootstocks for this plum variety, especially on more fertile soils.
Pozegaca grafted on suckers bears fruit beginning with the third year and yields high quality fruit crops.
The main drawback of suckers as rootstocks is their insufficient vigour for the Pozegaca variety.
Myrobalan proved a better rootstock in poorer soils, with a more developed root system.
The Pozegaca variety, grafted on Myrobalan, bears fruit one or two years later, yields are good, but the fruits are less sweet than those of Pozegaca grafted on suckers.
When grafted on Myrobalan, Pozegaca has a greater vigour and longevity.
That is why in our country suckers were highly recommended for rootstocks up to the present, while Myrobalan