USE OF ROOTSTOCK IN FRUIT CROPS

 

 

A grafted or budded plant can produce usual patterns which may be different from what would have occupied if each component part of graft age viz. root stock and scion were grown separately or when it is grafted or budded in other types of rootstock. Some of these have major horticulture valve. This very inspect of rootstock in the performance of a scion cultivator or vice versa is known as stock scion relationships.

A) Effect of Stock on Scion Cultivar:

1. Size and Growth Habit:

In apple, rootstock can be classified as dwarf, semi dwarf vigorous and very vigorous rootstock based on their effect on a scion cultivator. If a scion is grafted on dwarf rootstock the graft combination will be dwarf while he same cultivar grafted on very rootstock would grow very vigorously. In citrus, trifoliate oranges.  On the other hands, in mango all plants of a given variety are known to have the same characteristic canopy shape of the variety despite the rootstocks being of seedling origin. But recently, rootstock of kakarady, olour have been found to impart dwarfness in the scion cultivators. Guava cultivars grafted on psidium puminum are found to be dwarf in statue.

2. Precocity in Flowering and Fruiting:

The time taken from plating to fruiting precocity is influenced by rootstocks. Generally fruiting is influenced by rootstocks. Generally fruiting precocity is associated with dwarfing rootstocks and slowness to start fruiting with vigorous rootstocks. Mandarins, when grafted on Jamberi rootstock are precious than those grafted on sweet orange or sour orange or acid lime rootstock.

3. Fruit Set and Yield:

The rootstock directly influence on the production of flowers and setting fruit in oriental persimmon ( diospyrous kakii cv. Hichiya ). When it is grafted on D. Lotus, It produce more flowers but few only mature but when D. Kakii is used as the rootstock, the set is more.

The influenced of rootstock on the yield performance or cultivar has been well documented in many fruit crops. Acid limes budded on rough lemon register nearly 70 percent increased yield than those budded on troyer citrange, Rampur lime or its own rootstock. Sweet orange var. sathgudi budded on kichili rootstock r gave higher yield than on Jamberi or on its own seeding (South India).

4. Fruit Size and Quality:

Sathgudi sweet oranges grafted on gajanimma rootstock produced large but poor quality fruit, while on its own roots they produced fruit with high juice content and quality. The physiological disorder ‘granulation’ in sweet orange is very low of grafted on Cleopatra mandarin seedling, on their hand rough lemon seedling, stocks induced maximum granulation. The physiological disorder ‘black end ‘in Barlett Pear did not appear if Pyrus Communis was used as the rootstock Even P. pyrisfolia was used as the rootstock. This disorder appeared, affecting fruit quality.

5. Nutrient Status of Scion: Rootstocks do influence the nutrient status of scion also. Sathgudi sweet oranges trees have a better nutrient in the leaves when on it’s budded on C. volkarminriana rootstock than on its own rootstock or Cleopatra mandarin stocks.

6. Winter Hardiness:

Young grape fruit tree on Rangpur lime withstand winter injury better than on rough lemon or sour orange. Sweet orange and Mandarins on trifoliate were more cold hardy.

7. Diseases Resistance:

In citrus considerable variability exists among the rootstock in their response to diseases and nematodes. For instance rough lemon rootstock is tolerate to tristeza, xyloporosis and exocoritia is tolerant to gummosis but susceptible to exocorita  virus disease. Similarly, guava varieties grafted on chinse Guava, resist wilt diseases and nematodes.

8. Ability to Resist Soil Adverse Conditions:

Among the citrus rootstocks trifoliate orange exhibits poor ability to resist excess soil moisture or excess boron in the soil. Myroblan plum rootstock generally viz, peach, appreciator almond.

B) Effect of Scion on Root Stock:

1. Effect on Root System of Stock:

In apple it has been found that if apple seedling were budded with the “Red Astrochan “apple the rootstock produced a very fibrous root system with few top roots. On the other hand, if scion cultivar is less vigorous than the rootstock cultivar the rate growth and the dry ultimate size of the tree is more determinate by the scion rather the rootstock.

 

2. Cold Hardiness of the Rootstock:

Cold hardiness of citrus roots is affected by the scion cultivar. Sour orange seedling budded to ‘Eureka ‘lemon suffered much more from winter injury than the unbudded seedlings.

3. Age of Root Stock Seedling:

Young mango rootstock seedling (6 month to one year old ) were found to put forth inflorescence when the branches from old trees are inarched which will be attributed to the influence of scion on the rootstock.

I) Incompatibility:

Certain rootstock and scions are incompatible; therefore, the graft union between these two will not normally take place.

2. Kind of Plant:

Some species like oats are difficult to graft but apple and pears are very easy in predicting a successful graft union.

3. Environmental Factor During and Following Grafting:

There are certain environmental requirements which must be met for callus tissue to develop and heal the graft union.

·       Temperature has a pronounced effect on the production of callus tissues. An optimum temperature is essential for the production of callus tissue. In most of the temperature fruit crops callus production is retarded after 100 0 F.

·       Relative humidity must be high or maintaining a film of water against the callusing surface is essential to prevent these delicate thin walled parenchymatous calls from drying.

·       Presence of high Oxygen content near this surface is essential.

4. Growth Activity of Stock Plants:

Some propagation methods such as “T “ budding and bark grafting depend upon the bark grafting depend upon the bark ‘slipping’ which means the cambium cells activity dividing and producing young thin walled cells on the side of the cambium. These newly formed cells separating readily from one another as the bark slips.

5. Propagation Techniques:

Sometimes the technique used in grafting is so poor that only a small portion of the causal regions of the stock and scion are brought together. This measurement in its failure of the graft union.

 

A.   Rootstock for Tropical and Sub-tropical Fruits

1.    Mango:

Most of the Indian varieties are monoembryonic but some varieties from South India are polyembryonic, namely, Olour, Bappakai, Muvandan, Chandrakaran, Mylepelian, Kitchner, Nekkare, Prior, Vellaikulumban, Peach, Starch and Kurukan which give true to type seedlings from nucellar embryos. However, large scale utilization of polyembryonic varieties has not been made so far and there availability in northern India is very poor.

2. Citrus:

The rootstocks known to impart disease tolerance, high productivity and long tree life have also been identified. Seeds of most citrus species are polyembryonic and thus nucellar seedlings are used both for raising uniform rootstocks as well as for direct planting in acid lime and mandarins and also helps to raise healthy plants as most of the citrus viruses are not transmitted through seeds.

Table. 1. Commonly used citrus rootstocks

ROOTSTOCK	CHARACTERISTICS
Rough lemon	Large tree, high yield, deep rooted, susceptible to blight, tristeza tolerant, suitable for oranges and grape fruit; Fruit: Large, low quality
Trifoliate orange	Small tree, high yield, resistant to footrot, tristeza; suitable for mandarins; Fruit: Good quality.
Troyer Citrange	Standard tree, high yield, tolerant to foot rot, tristeza, suitable for oranges, grape fruit, lemons; Fruit: Large, good quality
Carrizo Citrange	Standard tree, high yield, tolerant to foot rot, tristeza, suitable for oranges, grape fruit, lemons, nematode resistant; Fruit: Large, good quality
Rangpur lime	Large tree, high yield, foot rot susceptible and suitable for orange, grape fruit; Fruit medium quality
Cleopatra mandarin	Large tree, slow growth, suitable for tangelos orange and grape fruit Fruit small with high quality

 

 

    In India, Rangpur lime is the most promising for mandarin and sweet orange in central and south India (Singh et al., 1997).

    In Punjab, Jatti Khatti (C. jambhiri) and Rangpur lime for kinnow, Rangpur lime and Cleopatra mandarin for Blood Red and Jatti Khatti and Cleoptra Mandarin for Jaffa have shown promise ( Dhatt and Singh, 1993).

    Feronia limonia proved to be highly dwarfing and precocious and suitable for high density planting.

    Citrus volkameriana found superior rootstocks for Navel orange, Valencia orange, Ruby Red and Marsh Grapefruit trees compared with the other rootstocks.

3. Guava

    Rootstocks for guava can either be grown from open pollinated seeds or clonally propagated. Wilt resistant Chinese guava rootstock (Psidium friedrichsthalianum) and had small bushes.

    Shankar (1967) reported that P molle, P guineense, P cattleianum, and Phillippines guava were found suitable as rootstocks.

    Pusa Srijan (aneuploid 82) found to be promising dwarf rootstock and had effect on growth and yield of Allahabad Safeda at IARI, New Delhi. The overall yield/unit volume of the plants was highest in Pusa Srijan (Sharma el' al., 1992) and there is a strong potentiality of its being used as a dwarfing rootstock on commercial scale for increasing the production and profitability of guava orchards.

4.    Grape

The important rootstocks for grape viz., Dog Ridge, 110-R, Salt creek, Temple, St. George, Ripario & Gloria, US17 and US 41, Harmony, 1613, Freedom etc, plays important role for imparting dwarfness and tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses.

Resistance of Rootstocks to Phylloxera: Rootstocks with resistance to phylloxera are 'Riparia Gloire', '1104-14 Mgt', SO4' (Selection Oppenheim 4), `K5BB' (Kober 5BB), and 'St. George.

Resistance of Rootstocks to Root Nematodes: The rootstocks exhibited resistance to root nematodes, namely, 'Barnes' (V champini), 'Joly' ( V champini), 'Monticola x Rupestris 'Ramsey' (V rupestris x V candicans), `Riparia x berlandieri 161-49', and 'Rupestris St. George'. Some other rootstocks considered to be resistant to nematodes are 'Ramsey', 'Dog Ridge', 'Harmony', '1613 C' and 'SO4'.

Tolerance of Rootstocks to Salinity: More recently, rootstock effects on salt tolerance of 'Sultana' , the best performing rootstocks were 'Ramsey', '1103P' and 'R2', which could impart most vigour to the scions.

Tolerance of Rootstocks to Drought: Rootstocks from V berlandieri x V rupestris were considered to be drought tolerant. Drought resistant rootstocks '11OR', '140Ru' and '1103P'.

5.    Sapota

The most commonly used rootstock for sapota is Rayan or Khirni ( Mimusops hexandra). In rootstock trials conducted in Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, Khirni was found to be most vigorous and productive rootstock compared to sapota seedlings and Bassia latifolia (Chadha 1991). Chrysophyllum lanceolatum, an indigenous species has also found suitable as it have abundant fruiting with seed fertility over 95% and has well established root system as well as wide adoptability.

6.    Minor fruit crops:

Ø In ber, Zizyphus nummularia (dwarfing due to inverted bottle neck at graft union) and Zizyphus rotundifolia ,

Ø Bael Aegle fraeglegaboensis,

Ø In Fig, Ficus glomerata- a nematode resistant rootstock,

Ø In custard apple, Annona glabra which is suitable for various soil condition,

Ø Jamun, Syzigium fruticosum (termite resistent) and Syzigium densiflora,

Ø In Olive, Olea huspidata can be used as a potential rootstocks.

B.    Rootstocks for Temperate Fruits

CROP	ROOTSTOCK	REMARK
Apple
A. Most dwarfing	M-27 (M 13 x M 9)	Most suited to triploid cultivars, Most dwarfing, 4' tall, slightly reduced fruit size, can also be used as interstock, resistant to fire blight,
B. Very dwarfing (inter- mediate between M-27 and M-9 EMLA)	P.2, P.16, P 22, P.62, P.63, P. 65, P.66	Resistant to Powdery Mildew
C. Dwarfing	M-9 (chance seedling)	Resistant to phytophthora root rot (crown rot)
D. Semi Dwarfing	M 7	Deeper root system, stronger, precocious, tolerant to excessive soil moisture, larger than M 26
E. Vigorous	MM 111 (Northern spy x M-1)	Resistant to wooly aphid, best suitable to heavy soils, drought tolerant
	MM-104	Well anchorage, drought resistant
F. Very vigorous	MM-109, M 25	High yielding
G. Others	Northern Spy	A source of resistant to wooly aphid
	M. sikkimensis, M. hupehensis, M. sargentii and M. toringoides Apomictic seedlings also used as clonal rootstocks
Pear	Cydonia (Quince)
	EMA (Quince A)	Intermediate to vigorous, good for week growing cultivars
	Quince B	Semi-vigrous
	Quince C	Dwarf, easy to propagate, incompatible with many Asian pears, susceptible to fire blight
Peach (Prunus persica)	GF 305	Very vigorous, susceptible to Agrobacterium and Phytophthora
	Rubira	Vigorous, red foliage, uniform germination, slightly sensitive to Pratylenchus vulnus
	Montelor	Resistant to Fe and Mg deficiency and chlorosis
	Nemared	Nematode resistant
Apricot	Myrobalan GF 31	Vigorous, productive, good compatibility and tolerant to high soil moisture
	Myrobalan GF 8/1	Vigorous, wide adoptability to soil and resistant to wet soil, salt and crown gall
Cherry	Colt (P avium x P pseudocerasus)	Semi dwarfing, induce better growth control with traditional cultivar, induce good fruit size
	Mahaleb (P mahaleb)	Hardier and more drought resistant than Mazzard
	Mazzard (P avium)	Standard rootstock for both sour and sweet
	Paja (P cerasoids)	Show delayed incompatibility
Almond	Hansen 2168	Vigorous, tolerant to root knot nematode and relatively low chilling
	Peach Almond Hybrid GF 677	Vigorous tolerant to wet and dry soil, salt
Walnut	Paradox	Vigorous, disease resistant and tolerant to salt and drought