PRUNUS CERASUS AND PRUNUS FRUTICOSA AS INTERSTOCKS FOR SWEET CHERRY TREES

In suboptimal soil conditions, vigorous seedling rootstocks grafted with a dwarfing interstock may provide an appropriate rootstock solution.
As Prunus cerasus (L.) cultivars have been reported to serve as dwarfing interstems, a trial was established in 1990 to examine the effect of sour cherry cultivars as interstems compared to some P. fruticosa selections on growth and productivity of sweet cherry (P. avium L.) trees.
Trees of ‘Van’ and ‘Germersdorfi óriás’ were planted on mahaleb (P. mahaleb L.) seedling rootstocks intergrafted with ‘Érdi bőtermő’, ‘Pándy meggy’ and the P. fruticosa × P. mahaleb hybrid ‘Prob’, and on sour cherry seedlings intergrafted with ‘Meteor korai’ and ‘Debreceni bőtermő’, for comparison to trees on ‘Mahaleb’ and ‘Mazzard’. The trees were planted at a spacing of 5 x 3 m and trained to a central leader (modified Brunner-spindle). Five cm of the rootstock, and all of the interstock part (30 cm), was exposed above the soil line.
Intergrafted sour cherries on both mahaleb and sour cherry rootstocks reduced tree vigour. P. fruticosa ‘Selektion 1’ and ‘Prob’ drastically reduced tree size, but these combinations had poor longevity with only a few trees alive in the 15^th leaf.
On the basis of the cumulative yield efficiency, promising intergrafted combinations are: ‘Van’ and ‘Germersdorfi óriás’ with ‘Meteor korai’ and ‘Pándy meggy’, as well as ‘Germersdorfi óriás’ with Érdi bőtermő, sour cherry interstocks on both mahaleb and sour cherry seedling rootstocks.
Fruit size on all P. cerasus interstems was larger than on mahaleb SL 64 or Mazzard seedling rootstocks.

V International Cherry Symposium

L. Magyar, K. Hrotkó

Prunus avium, fruit weight, growth reduction, overgrowth, rootstock, sour cherry

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.795.40