Evaluation of some precocious sweet cherry cultivars on some Hungarian bred Mahaleb rootstocks

Ten cherry rootstocks (‘Bogdány’, Cerasus mahaleb ‘Cemany’, ‘Egervár’, ‘Érdi V’, ‘Korponay’, ‘Magyar’, ‘SM 11/4’, P. avium ‘C. 2493’, ‘GiSelA 6’, control: ‘INRA SL 64’ rootstock) combined with early ripening sweet cherry cultivars (‘Petrus^℗’, ‘Vera^℗’, ‘Carmen^℗’) have been evaluated among non-irrigated conditions in Central Hungary. The trial was set up at Experimental Fields of NARIC Fruitculture Research Institute at Research Station of Érd. Aim of our study was to find suitable rootstock(s) for novel bred Hungarian sweet cherry cultivars. It can be stated after eight years investigation that ‘Petrus^℗’ was the most vigorous cultivar, which is followed by ‘Vera^℗’ and ‘Carmen^℗’. The ‘GiSelA 6’ rootstock had low vigor among examined rootstocks and ‘INRA SL 64’ was the most vigorous in our trial. TCSA of ‘Petrus^℗’ combinations grafted on ‘SM11/4’ and ‘Bogdány’ was significantly bigger than on ‘C. 2493’, ‘Egervár’ and ‘GiSelA 6’ rootstocks. Other rootstocks such as ‘Érdi V’, ‘Korponay’, ‘Magyar’ and ‘Cemany’ indicated high-moderately high vigor for ‘Petrus^℗’. The ‘GiSelA 6’/‘Vera^℗’ combination had significantly smaller TCSA compared to other ‘Vera^℗’ combinations. In the case of ‘Carmen^℗’ rootstock ‘Cemany’ showed high, ‘Érdi V’, ‘C. 2493’, ‘Egervár’, ‘Korponay’ indicated medium and ‘GiSelA 6’ produced low vigor. ‘Petrus^℗’ produced the biggest yield and the smallest fruit size among observed cherry cultivars. Yield of ‘Carmen^℗’ grafted on ‘Érdi V’, ‘Egervár’, and ‘GiSelA 6’ was the highest but only ‘Érdi V’ had a positive effect on fruit size because more than 40% of examined fruit were larger than 28.1 mm in diameter. ‘Vera^℗’ yielded well on ‘Érdi V’ and ‘Egervár’, the best fruit size was produced by ‘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 per tree on ‘Egervár’ and ‘GiSelA 6’ and ‘Vera^℗’ was the most valuable on ‘Egervár’, ‘INRA SL 64’, ‘and ‘Érdi V’ rootstocks.