ROOTSTOCK INFLUENCE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE PEACH VARIETY ‘CATHERINE’

The rootstocks used were: Plums: ‘Brompton’, ‘Constanti’, ‘Damas 1869’, ‘GF 43’, ‘Monpol 645’, ‘Montizo 646’, ‘Puebla de Soto 101’, ‘San Julian A’ and ‘San Julian 655/2’. Peaches: ‘Commercial Seedling’, ‘GF 305’, ‘Siberian C’, and ‘Self-rooted Catherine’. Almond x Peach hybrids: ‘Adafuel’, ‘Arbucias’ and ‘GF 677’.

The trial was planted in a flood irrigated plot in a silt-loam soil, low active lime and low fertility. ‘Constanti’ and ‘San Julian A’ rootstocks were eliminated in the study due to the waterlogging mortality of 4 trees each.

‘Adafuel’ showed the highest vigor with 66 cm of trunk girth, followed by ‘GF 677’ with 62 cm. Vigor of ‘Siberian C’ and ‘Commercial Seedling’ with 51 cm of trunk girth was similar to plums.

After 8 crops, the highest accumulated yield was obtained on ‘GF 677’ with 411 kg/tree followed by ‘Adafuel’ with 405 kg/tree. The lowest yields were obtained on ‘Brompton’ and ‘Puebla de Soto 101’ with 219 and 214 kg/tree respectively.

The best productivity (cumulative yield/trunk cross-sectional area) was obtained on ‘Commercial Seedling’ (1.42 kg/cm²) followed by ‘Siberian C’ (1.40 kg/cm²) and ‘GF 677’ (1.37 kg/cm²). The lowest productivity was obtained on ‘GF 43’ (0.96 kg/cm²).

We can conclude that, regarding the calculated productivity, ‘Catherine’ can be successfully cultivated on its own roots. In the soil conditions of the trial the most demanding rootstocks (plums) were handicaped and consequently the best adaptation was obtained with peaches jointly with the almond x peach hybrids.

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