Abstract
Over the period 2006–2009 in Lublin, a study was conducted to determine the effect of five types of rootstock: ‘Colt’, ‘F12/1’, sweet cherry (<em>Prunus avium </em>L.), ‘GiSelA 5’ and ‘Piast’ mahaleb cherry (<em>Prunus mahaleb </em>L.), on the growth and quality of maiden sweet cherry trees cv. ‘Regina’ in a commercial nursery. Based on the three-year average, rootstocks were shown to have a significant effect on the investigated quality characteristics of maiden sweet cherry trees. Trees budded on ‘Colt’ vegetative rootstock were characterized by strongest growth and best quality. In each year, they were thicker, higher and better branched than sweet cherries on the rootstock. Under the tested conditions, ‘GiSelA 5’ dwarf rootstock significantly reduced the growth and quality of budded sweet cherry trees in the nursery. During the period 2007–2009, no physiological incompatibility symptoms were observed ‘Regina’ sweet cherry cv. and ‘Piast’ seedling rootstocks. The growth of trees budded on ‘Piast’ mahaleb cherry was poorer than on ‘Colt’ clonal rootstock, but it was stronger than on ‘F12/1’ and <em>Prunus avium</em> L. rootstocks.
Highlights
A major problem in the production of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is tree vigour [1,2]
No irrigation was used in the nursery, fertilization was applied based on soil analysis, whereas plant protection was carried out in accordance with the current recommendations resulting from the orchard crop protection schedule
For the purpose of comparison, the experiment tested rootstocks commonly used in Poland for the production of sweet cherry trees: Prunus avium L. seedlings, ‘Colt’ and ‘F12/1’ rootstocks [6,26] as well as the ‘GiSelA 5’ which is considered to be one of the most valuable rootstocks for sweet cherry [21,28]
Summary
A major problem in the production of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is tree vigour [1,2]. The intensification of sweet cherry growing should involve the production of trees on semi-dwarf and dwarf rootstocks or the use of dwarfing interstems [3,4,5,6,7]. Prunus avium L. seedlings are the most frequently used rootstock for sweet cherry cultivars in Poland. The major changes in sweet cherry growing methods which have been observed in recent years are a result of low-vigour vegetative rootstocks [21,22,23,24] whose main advantage, compared to seedlings, is their genetic homogeneity
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