APRICOT-NECTARINE GRAFT COMPATIBILITY AND POSSIBLE CROSS PROTECTION EFFECTS AGAINST PPV

Virus free nectarine (cv Snow Queen) and apricot (cv Bebecou) budsticks taken from the screen house were budded onto four year old experimental nectarine trees (cv Arm King on GF677 root stocks) at the Pomology Institute in Macrochori, Veria. One third of these trees was derived from a 10 year old selected nectarine (cv Arm King on GF 677) which showed no symptoms of PPV on its fruits, another third was derived from a tree showing only a few symptoms, while the final third came from trees showing many symptoms. All the trees were on GF677 root stocks.

The results may be summarized as follows:

Nectarines (cv Arm King) derived from trees with no or only few symptoms of PPV on fruits had significantly fewer symptoms than those from trees with many symptoms.

Virus free nectarines (cv Snow Queen) grafted on trees (cv Arm King) without symptoms on the fruits showed significantly fewer symptoms than those grafted on trees with heavy symptoms. Similarly apricot budsticks (cv Bebecou) grafted on nectarines without symptoms of PPV showed fewer symptoms on the fruits than those grafted on trees with severe symptoms however the differences did not reach statistical significance.

No graft compatibility problems were found among 30 apricot scions grafted on the nectarine cv Arm King.

However, apparent PPV symptoms on the leaves were found in all scions and the possibility of cross protection requires further investigation.

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