Performance of Minneola tangelo trees grafted over six rootstocks in Colombia Tropical Lowland (1997-2010)

Abstract

‘Cleopatra’ tangerine (Citrus reshni hort. ex Tanaka) is a commonly used rootstock in the piedmont of Meta department, Colombia for establishing of commercial citrus orchards. Have allowed a late production entrance rootstock and produced big plants when grafted with tangelo ‘Minneola’ (C. reticulata Blanco x C. paradise Macf), decreasing the productive efficiency in plants and hard crop practices. The evaluated performance were as follows: tree size, productive efficiency and fruit quality of tangelo ‘Minneola’ grafted in six rootstocks. It found that the cumulated production of 11 years was better with Citrumelo ‘Swingle’ (Citrus paradisi Macf. × Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf) with 1388.3 kg tree-1, followed by ‘Cleopatra’ (Citrus reshni hort. ex Tanaka) with 893.2 kg.tree-1, in last place was ‘Carrizo’ (Citrus sinensis Osb. × Poncirustrifoliata (L.) Raf) with 182.9 kg tree-1. The other rootstocks, had a medium production. The greatest height and canopy value, was found with ‘Cleopatra’ without significant differences with Citrumelo ‘Swingle’. In fruit quality no significant differences occurred.