Rootstocks for 'Tahiti' lime

Abstract

The 'Tahiti' lime (Citrus latifolia Tanaka) is an important commercial citrus cultivar in Brazil. 'Rangpur' lime has being used as its main rootstock, but it is susceptible to root rot caused by Phytophthora, reducing tree longevity. An experiment was set up in a randomized block design, with three trees per plot of each rootstock and four replicates, and run for 12 years, aiming to compare the performance of 'IAC-5 Tahiti' lime, budded on 'Rangpur' lime (Citrus limonia Osb.); 'C-13' citrange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb. × Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.); 'African' rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush.); 'Volkamer' lemon (Citrus volkameriana Ten. & Pasq.); trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.); 'Sunki' mandarin (Citrus sunki Hort. ex Tan.) and 'Cleopatra' mandarin (Citrus reshni Hort. ex Tan.). Eleven years after the establishment of the orchard, trees with the greatest canopy development were budded on 'C-13' citrange and 'African' rough lemon, and both differed significantly from trees budded on trifoliate orange, 'Sunki' and 'Cleopatra' mandarins, which presented the smallest canopy development. Trees budded on 'Rangpur' lime and 'C-13' citrange had the highest cumulative yields, and were different from trees budded on trifoliate orange, 'Cleopatra' and 'Sunki' mandarins. There was no rootstock effect on mean fruit weight and on the total soluble solid/acid ratio in the juice. The 'Rangpur' lime and the 'Cleopatra' mandarin rootstocks reduced longevity of plants.

Fruit quality of 'Tahiti' lime (Citrus latifolia Tanak) grafted on twelve different rootstocks

“…Our results do not agree with Stenzel & Neves (2004) who reported that juice yield was the highest for 'Rangpur' lime differing from trifoliate orange. However, it should be noted that all the rootstocks induced juice contents above 42%, which according to Gayet et al (1995) is the minimum juice content required for fruits destined to exportation.…”

“…The obtained results of juice content are very close to those found by IriarteMartel (1993) and by Stenzel & Neves (2004), who reported values between 40.8% to 46.7% and between 36.7 to 47.3% for 'Tahiti' lime, respectively.…”

“…Total tritable acidity levels were higher than those obtained by Stenzel & Neves (2004), who reported values of 5.0 to 5.8%, while in the present work the total tritable acidity varied between 6.5 and 6.8%. These acidity levels were within the range described by Gayet (1995), of 6 to 8%.…”

“…The other rootstocks, including the 'Sunki' mandarin and the 'Swingle' citrumello, induced intermediate SS values. In general, the observed SS values were higher than those found by Stenzel & Neves (2004), but they were close to the mean SS values described by Donadio et al (1995), of about 9° Brix.…”

Initial horticultural performance of nine ‘Persian’ lime selections grafted onto Swingle citrumelo

“…In Maringá, in the state of Paraná, Brazil, different rootstocks did not influence fruit mass and ratio, but did influence juice percentage, soluble solids and acidity of 'IAC-5' PL fruits (Stenzel and Neves, 2004).…”