INTERGRAFTING TO CONTROL VIGOR OF ´JUBILEU´ PEACH

Intergrafting is a practice that can be used to restrict excessive vigor, when rootstocks are not available to accomplish this purpose.
The objective was to evaluate the effect of intergrafting on the vegetative growth of peach trees. ‘Jubileu’ was intergrafted with 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm of the cultivar ‘Granada’ plus a control group (no intergrafted trees) in the year 2002, in the Didactic Orchard of the Centro Agropecuário da Palma of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas (Brazil). The seedling ‘Capdeboscq’ rootstock was intergrafted and the scion cultivar was grafted via budding in January and July of 2001, respectively.
The parameters evaluated in the dormancy period of 2003 and 2004 were rootstock trunk, interstem trunk and cultivar trunk diameters, canopy size, tree height, flower bud density, and, in 2004, leaf area, fresh and dry leaf weight, and specific leaf weight.
The diameters of the rootstock and interstem trunk and the specific leaf weight were not influenced by the different interstem lengths.
The diameter of the cultivar trunk, the canopy size, tree height, leaf area and the fresh and dry leaf weights were influenced by the different interstem lengths such that, with the increase of the interstem length, there were increasing reductions for the average values of the evaluated parameters.
As of 2004, only the cultivar trunk diameter and the flower bud density could be represented by exponential functions, whereas the cultivar trunk diameter had a maximum point at 15.75 cm and the flower bud density had a minimum point at 15.09 cm of interstem length.
The interstem technique was effective in controlling vigor of ‘Jubileu’ peach without reducing the flower bud density.

VI International Peach Symposium

L. Rufato, A. De Rossi, C.L. Giacobbo, J.C. Fachinello, F.R.C. Gomes

canopy size, productivity, flower bud density, interstock, interstem

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.713.33