Influence of plum rootstocks on agronomic performance, leaf mineral nutrition and fruit quality of ‘Catherina’ peach cultivar in heavy-calcareous soil conditions

Abstract

The agronomic performance and leaf mineral nutrition of the non-melting clingstone peach cv. 'Catherina' was evaluated on seven hexaploid plum rootstocks, as well as one Prunus persica seedling. They were assessed over a period of 15 years in a field trial at the Experimental Station of Aula Dei-CSIC (Zaragoza, Spain), located in the Ebro Valley (NE Spain). Growing conditions generated varying levels of tree mortality, the highest with Constantí 1, Monpol and Montizo, whereas all Adesoto, GF 655/2 and PM 105 AD trees survived well. GF 655/2 and P. Soto 67 AD proved to be the most dwarfing rootstocks, while Constantí 1 and Monpol were the most invigorating and generated greater cumulative yields. However, the highest yield efficiency was recorded on GF 655/2 and Montizo, although they did not differ significantly from Adesoto and P. Soto 67 AD. The highest average values for fruit weight were observed on PM 105 AD and the lowest on GF 655/2, but they did not differ significantly from the rest of the rootstocks. The highest average values for the soluble solids content were observed on the Pollizo rootstocks Adesoto and PM 105 AD, followed by P. Soto 67 AD. All rootstocks induced nitrogen deficiency, with the exception of Constantí 1, GF 655/2 and Montizo, and iron deficiency, except PM 105 AD. The invigorating rootstock Constantí 1 seemed to induce higher SPAD values. According to the ΣDOP index, Montizo presented the most suitable balanced nutritional index, but it did not differ significantly from the rest of the rootstocks except GF 655/2 and P. Soto 67 AD.Additional key words: iron chlorosis; vigour; yield; SSC; SPAD.Correspondence should be addressed to María Angeles Moreno: mmoreno@eead.csic.es Authors' contributions: MAM has designed and conducted the study since 1997. LM collected samples and performed the leaf mineral, SPAD and fruit quality analysis. JAB supervised the leaf mineral analysis. MAM supervised the research and guided data interpretation. LM, GR and MAM carried out statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Competing interests:The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Horticultural, leaf mineral and fruit quality traits of two ‘Greengage’ plum cultivars budded on plum based rootstocks in Mediterranean conditions

“…A moderate to low negative significantly correlation was found between SPAD and Fe in this study. Nevertheless, our results were within the range as previously reported in other Prunus studies (Jiménez et al, 2008;Mestre et al, 2015Mestre et al, , 2017.…”

“…In general, the leaf mineral concentrations appeared to be within the optimum range according to reference values (Reuter et al, 1997), with the exceptions of N, P, Fe and Mn. Leaf N values were slightly lower than the optimum, explained mainly by the type of soil (calcareous with a high pH), in good agreement with other studies in similar soil conditions (El-Jendoubi et al, 2012;Mestre et al, 2015Mestre et al, , 2017. Guo-yi et al (2015) reported that N influenced fruit size and composition, and higher N levels could decrease the amount of soluble solids and increase the titratable acid level in apples, which agrees with the correlations found in the present study between leaf N concentration and SSC and TA.…”

“…Differences in leaf concentration of major nutrients between trees on different rootstocks are likewise attributable to the inherent capacity of the rootstock to absorb nutrients (Meland, 2010;Mestre et al, 2015Mestre et al, , 2017. In the present work, most of the nutrients were not affected by cultivar, rootstock and the interaction of both, with the exception of N, P and Mn.…”

“…The chlorophyll (Chl) content of leaves per unit leaf area was estimated in the field at 115 days after full bloom (DAFB) in 2011, using a SPAD 502 meter (Minolta Co., Osaka, Japan) as described in other Prunus rootstocks studies (Jiménez et al, 2007;Mestre et al, 2015Mestre et al, , 2017.…”

“…Leaf mineral element concentrations were determined in 2010 and 2011, as described in cherry and peach rootstock studies (Jiménez et al, 2007;Mestre et al, 2015Mestre et al, , 2017.…”