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RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BUD DORMANCY AND ROOTING ABILITY IN PEACH HARDWOOD CUTTINGS
At the same time, peach dormancy was studied by placing 10 shoots in a growth chamber at regular intervals and recording the mean times required for bud opening, and the percentages of opened buds.
The rooting ability of cuttings during the fall-winter period showed remarkable variation, with similar behaviour in the several rootstocks tested.
In most of them, rooting percentage was highest in mid-November and mid-December, when the chilling requirement was only partially satisfied, while the lowest percentage rooting occurred in late January.
Generally, the changes observed were not correlated with leaf bud dormancy.
The reduction of rooting at the end of January corresponds with the after-rest period.
Disbudding trials done at several times (removing leaf and/or flower buds) seem to indicate that the lower rooting in this period was partially attributable to the ending of flower bud dormancy.
Removal of flower buds improved rooting in late January, but had no influence during the main winter rest period.