Influence of a few seedling rootstocks on the growth, yield and fruit quality of apricot trees.

In the field experiment, 5-year-old ‘Morden 604’ and ‘Miodowa’ apricot trees grafted on the seedling rootstocks Wangenheim Prune and Erunosid (both P. domestica L.), as well as Polish selection apricot (P. armeniaca L.) genotypes A4 and M46 were compared with trees of the same cultivars on the standard P. divaricata rootstock. Vigour in apricot trees was affected by rootstock type. Trees of both cultivars on P. divaricata and ‘M46’ had the largest trunk cross-sectional area. The most dwarfing rootstock was ‘Wangenheim Prune’. Rootstock had no effect on the fruiting of ‘Morden 604’ trees. In the case of the Miodowa cultivar, the highest cumulative yields were harvested from trees grafted on P. divaricata and ‘M46’, while the lowest from those on ‘Erunosid’. The results revealed that ‘Wangenheim Prune’, in comparison to other rootstock tested, significantly reduced the mean fruit weight. In addition, trees grafted on this rootstock had the highest mortality. Mean content of soluble solids in fruits of ‘Morden 604’ and ‘Miodowa’ apricots was not affected by rootstocks in this study. Generally, the value of A4 and M46 genotypes used as seedling rootstocks for apricot trees in this experiment was higher than the P. divaricata standard rootstock.