Performance of three Hungarian early sweet cherry cultivars on some novel bred rootstocks

Ten cherry rootstocks ('Bogdány', 'Egervár', 'Érdi V’, ‘Korponay’, ‘Magyar’, ‘SM 11/4’, ‘C. 2493’, ‘GiSelA 6’, ‘INRA SL 64’ and ‘Cemany’ as a control) combined with three early-ripening sweet cherry cultivars (‘Petrus^®‘, ‘Vera^®‘ and ‘Carmen^®‘) have been evaluated under non-irrigated conditions at Experimental Fields of NARIC Fruit Culture Research Institute (central Hungary). The aim of our study was to find suitable rootstock(s) for novel bred Hungarian sweet cherry cultivars. It can be stated after eight years of investigation that ‘Petrus^℗‘ was the most vigorous cultivar, followed by ‘Vera^®‘ and ‘Carmen^®‘. The ‘GiSelA 6’ rootstock had the lowest vigor among examined rootstocks and ‘INRA SL 64’ was the most vigorous. Trunk cross-sectional area (TCSA) of ‘Petrus^®‘ grafted on ‘SM11/4’ and ‘Bogdány’ was significantly higher than on ‘C. 2493’, ‘Egervár’ and ‘GiSelA 6’. Other rootstocks such as ‘Érdi V’, ‘Korponay’, ‘Magyar’ and ‘Cemany’ indicated high to moderate high vigor for ‘Petrus^®‘. ‘GiSelA 6’/’Vera^®‘ combination had significantly smaller TCSA compared to combinations of ‘Vera’ with other rootstocks. Vigor for ‘Carmen^®‘ with ‘Cemany’ was high; with ‘Érdi V’, ‘C. 2493’, ‘Egervár’, and ‘Korponay’ it was medium; and with ‘GiSelA 6’ it was low. ‘Petrus^®‘ produced the biggest yield and the smallest fruit size. Yield of ‘Carmen^®‘ on ‘Érdi V’, ‘Egervár’, and ‘GiSelA 6’ was the highest, but only ‘Érdi V’ had a positive effect on fruit size with more than 40% of fruits larger than 28,1 mm in diameter. ‘Vera^®‘ yielded well on ‘Érdi V’ and ‘Egervár’, and the best fruit size was produced on ‘Érdi V’. On the basis of value-yield index, which was calculated by actual market price per fruit size category, ‘Carmen^®‘ produced the highest income tree^-1 on ‘Egervár’ and ‘GiSelA 6’ and ‘Vera^®‘ was most valuable on ‘Egervár’, ‘INRA SL 64’, ‘and ‘Érdi V’ rootstocks.