Influence of clonal rootstocks on leaf nutrient content, vigor and productivity of young ‘Sunraycer’ nectarine trees

Abstract

Abstract Commercial peach and nectarine plantings still include scions budded on seedling rootstocks, which generates unevenness among the plants in many attributes, such as vigor, yield and nutritional state, without the use of benefits that some cutting-propagated rootstock selections and cultivars can provide. Despite the research on Prunus propagation of scions and rootstocks by cuttings, there is little information on the performance of these plants in field conditions. ‘Sunraycer’ was budded on Prunus persica x Prunus davidiana hybrids (‘Flordaguard’, ‘Cadaman’, ‘Barrier’), other interspecific hybrids, as ‘G X N.9’ (P. persica x P.dulcis) and ‘Ishtara’ [(P. cerasifera x P. salicina) x (P. cerasifera x P. persica)], besides non-hybrids, as ‘Santa Rosa’ (P. salicina), ‘Okinawa’, ‘Tsukuba-1’, ‘Tsukuba-2’, ‘Tsukuba-3’, ‘Nemared’, ‘Mexico Fila 1’ and ‘I-67-52-4’ (P. persica). There was wide variation on the variables analysed among nectarine plants budded on clonal rootstocks or own-rooted trees. ‘Ishtara’, ‘Tsukuba-3’, ‘Barrier’ and ‘Flordaguard’ stand out in terms of higher leaf nutrient contents in ‘Sunraycer’ nectarine trees, rather than the own-rooted trees. ‘Santa Rosa’ provides the majority of the nutritional deficiency cases (nitrogen, potassium, calcium, sulfur, iron and zinc). In addition, ‘Flordaguard’ and ‘Ishtara’ induce greater and lower vigor to the scion, respectively, and also stand out from other treatments in terms of yield, as well as the own-rooted trees, evincing a better nutrient use efficiency, unlike ‘Cadaman’.