Effect of transmission of exocortis dwarfing factors into Washington navel orange trees

Abstract

Washington navel orange trees on trifoliate orange rootstocks were inoculated at various ages with budwood from either severely dwarfed Washington navel trees with butt scaling caused by exocortis virus or moderately dwarfed Marsh grapefruit trees with no butt scaling. Dwarfing, measured by trunk girth, became apparent four seasons after inoculation, the butt scaling inoculum causing more pronounced dwarfing than the non-scaling inoculum. For both inocula, trees inoculated in the nursery were the most dwarfed, and yielded least, with trees inoculated in the field one, two, three or five years later being successively less dwarfed and high yielding. In a second experiment, Washington navel orange trees on trifoliate orange, which were carrying exocortis virus or were inoculated with it either in the nursery or later in the field, were planted in 1962 at a density of 835 ha-1. The field inoculated trees subsequently grew larger than the others. All were more dwarfed but yielded more heavily on a ground area basis during five years of cropping than exocortis-free trees planted at a normal density of 222 ha-1. Dwarfed trees developed butt scaling symptoms and periodically became unthrifty. The non-scaling form of dwarfing lends itself to the development of high density plantings of small trees with consequent benefits in management and high early production