Performance of six European plum cultivars on four plum rootstocks growing in a northern climate

Abstract

The performances of the plum rootstocks Marianna GF 8-1, Pixy, and Wangenheim, compared with St. Julien A as a standard, for the cultivars 'Avalon', 'Edda', 'Excalibur', 'Jubileum', 'Reeves', and 'Victoria' were assessed in a field trial in western Norway at 608 North. Trees were planted in spring 1999; the plant material was one-year-old whips, spaced 2.0 )4.5 m and formed with a central leader as free spindles. Tree vigour, yield, fruit size, fruit quality, and yield efficiency were evaluated for the seven subsequent years. Tree size was significantly affected by the rootstocks after seven years' growth. Wangenheim produced the smallest and St. Julien A and Pixy the largest trees as measured by trunk cross-sectional area, on average for the different cultivars. However, Pixy produced significant larger yields per tree for the cultivar 'Reeves' than did St. Julien A. 'Edda' gave the smallest yield and 'Avalon the largest. Trees on Pixy were the most yield efficient for all cultivars with the exception of 'Victoria'. The fruit sizes became little affected by the different rootstocks. 'Edda' and 'Victoria' produced the smallest fruits and 'Excalibur' and 'Reeves' the largest. Fruit quality characterized by the content of soluble solids was on average 16.1% and did not differ between trees on the various rootstocks. The cultivar 'Avalon' had the highest contents of soluble solids and 'Reeves' the lowest. The nutrient levels in the leaves were within the optimum range by the end of the seventh season. Trees on Marianna GF 8-1 had the highest nitrogen and magnesium leaf uptake. In conclusion, St. Julien A and Pixy were the most reliable semi-vigorous rootstocks which induced high yield efficiency and with favourable influences on fruit quality to the six European plum cultivars. Pixy is a good alternative to St. Julien A, with a lower vigour in trees, more precocity, and higher yield efficiency.

Evaluation of several dessert cultivars of plum, new under climatic conditions of Poland

“…The yield efficiency obtained for trees of the other cultivars assessed was 2-4 times lower than for trees of the cultivar 'Victoria' , which is consistent with the results obtained by other authors (Hjeltnes 1994;Meland, Moe 2007;Meland 2010).…”

“…Fruits of the cultivars: 'Jubileum' , 'Reeves' and ' Avalon' were also larger than those of 'Victoria' , which is consistent with results obtained by other authors (Jones 1989;Meland, Moe 2007;Meland 2010). 'Edda' produced the smallest fruits.…”

“…in Anderson, Okie 1997). Some have been successfully grown for many years in the Nordic countries, while others, from more recent breeding programmes, are becoming increasingly popular (Redalen 2002;Meland, Moe 2007;Sekse 2007;Meland 2010). There is a chance that they will also find a place in plum orchards in Poland.…”

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

“…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.…”

Influence of Rootstocks on Leaf Mineral Content in the Subtropical Peach cv. UFSun

“…Therefore, as previously reported (Milosevic and Milosevic, 2010;Rosati et al, 1996), it can be concluded that various rootstocks have different uptake ability of macronutrients. Inherent ca-pacity of the different rootstocks to major nutrient absorption and translocation is different (Meland, 2010;Mestre et al, 2015Mestre et al, , 2017. In the present work, leaf concentrations of most of the nutrients studied were not significantly affected by rootstock, with the exception of a few elements.…”