11. Reproductive characteristics on two cherry cultivars, grafted on interstocks

Author: Sava Tabakov, Pantaley Kaymakanov, Anton Yordanov, Georgi Govedarov

DOI: n/a

Abstract

In the period of 2012-2014 the influence of three interstocks on the reproductive characteristics of the sweet cherry cultivars Bigarreau burlat and Stella grafted on Prunus mahaleb L. – P 1 seedling rootstock was tested. The rootstock Gisela 5, the North Star sour cherry cultivar and Hybrid 2/10 were used as interstocks, each of them being 10cm and 30cm long. The same sweet cherry cultivars grafted directly on P 1 rootstock were used as control. The trees were planted in March 2006 with planting distance 6.0 x 4.5 m, grown under non-irrigated conditions and formed as free-growing crowns.

It was established that for most traits giving information for the potential productivity (number of spurs, flower buds and blossoms) of the Bigarreau burlat cultivar, the Hybrid 2/10 interstock and Gisela 5 long interstock trees had advantage over the other variants. In that respect the Stella cultivar trees grafted on interstocks had some advantages over the control.

The total yield per tree unit crown volume for the period for Bigarreau burlat was the highest from the control trees and from those grafted on Hybrid 2/10 long interstock. For the Stella cultivar the highest yield was obtained from the trees grafted on Gisela 5 and Hybrid 2/10 interstocks, as well as from the control. In relation to the influence of the length of the interstock component for the two cultivars a certain advantage was observed in all variants with longer interstocks.