RAPID SELECTION OF PEACH ROOTSTOCKS TOLERANT TO BORON AND CHLORIDE

In regions with fresh water shortages, reclaimed sewage water is used increasingly for irrigation of peach and other stone fruit species.
Boron and chloride are dominant ingredients in sewage water that might subsequently be concentrated in the soil solution up to phytotoxic levels.
The main objective of the present study was to select rootstocks tolerant to toxic levels of boron (B) and chloride (Cl). Commercial peach ‘GF 677’, ‘Hansen 536’, ‘Baladi’, ‘Miran’, ‘Kademan’ and ‘Ferciana’ were grafted with the same scion peach ‘Rhods’ (‘Swelling’). The trees were grown in pots with a perlite medium and screened for tolerance to B (5 and 2 ppm), Cl^– (500 ppm) and Cl^– (500 ppm)+B (2 ppm) applied continuously through the irrigation water.
At the end of the first season of treatment applications, lower degrees of toxic symptoms were recorded on the leaves and branches of the scion grafted on ‘Ferciana’ than on the other rootstocks.
B and Cl uptake was detected separately in roots, trunk+branches and leaves.
The ratios of roots/leaves and roots/trunk+branches of B and Cl concentrations was highest in ‘Ferciana’ rootstock, indicating that B and Cl are restricted from being transported from the roots to the upper parts of the plant.
It seems that ‘Ferciana’ is potentially the more adaptable rootstock to phytotoxic levels of B and Cl relative to the other tested peach rootstocks.

XXVII International Horticultural Congress – IHC2006: International Symposium on Enhancing Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Fruit Production in a Global Economy

S. Zilkah, A. Yanai, I. David

¿Ferciana¿, irrigation, Prunus persica, salinity, sewage water

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.772.38