BREEDING AND SELECTION OF APPLE AND PEAR ROOTSTOCKS

Rootstocks are used for propagating most commercial cultivars of apple and pear. Use of selected clonal rootstocks can provide many other beneficial characteristics to the orchard tree, such as control of vigor and cropping and tolerance/ resistance to a range of damaging pests, diseases and abiotic stress factors. These rootstock attributes are reviewed and some of the recently released new rootstocks for apples and pears are also described briefly. The future requirements for new rootstocks are mentioned, as are the principal objectives of the currently active breeding programs. Finally, the problems associated with the methods employed in rootstock breeding are briefly discussed and the potential for new breeding strategies considered.

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