EFFECT OF ROOTSTOCK AND INTERSTOCK ON GROWTH, YIELD AND FRUIY QUALITY OF SOME ORANGE VARIETIES B. FRUIT QUALITY

Abstract

This experiment was designed as long term study, started in 2008 till 2014 with the idea of using sour orange as interstock on volkamer lemon rootstock (SO/VL) for budding four orange varieties, namely, Olinda valencia ,Spring navel, Parent navel, and Fukumoto navel oranges. The purpose was to avoid some disadvantages of volkamer lemon on physical and chemical fruit quality with the hope of maintaining tree growth and its productivity with good properties acceptable for local and foreign market. The obtained results showed that, Fruit of Olinda valencia, Spring navel, Parent navel and Fukumoto navel oranges budded on the interstock were similar to those produced on sour orange in their physical fruit characters in terms of length, diameter, shape, volume, juice volume, rind thickness and segments number. Moreover, chemical fruit properties of orange scions on the interstock were also similar to those on sour orange rootstock in its higher TSS, lower acidity and higher TSS/acid ratio than those on volkamer lemon rootstock. Therefore, it is recommended to use sour orange as interstock when volkamer lemon is the given rootstock in orchard soil . Using sour orange as interstock on volkamer lemon proved to be useful in improving most fruit quality properties of the four orange varieties budded on it in this study.