Evaluation of different rootstocks with 'Van' sweet cherry cultivar

The rootstocks ‘Gisela 5’, ‘Gisela 6’, ‘CAВ 6P’, ‘MaxMa 14’, ‘MaxMa 60’, ‘F 12/1’ and ‘Alkavo 2’ budded with ‘Van’ sweet cherry were tested at the Institute of Agriculture - Kyustendil, Bulgaria. Trees on ‘IK-M9’ (local Mahaleb seedling rootstock) were used as а control. The trial was established in the spring of 2008. The trees were spaced at 4.0×3.0 m, trained as a freely growing crown and irrigated by over-tree sprinklers. Tree vigour, yield, yield efficiency, fruit size and fruit quality were evaluated during 2013-2015. According to trunk-cross sectional area and crown dimensions, the most vigorous rootstocks were ‘MaxMa 60’, ‘Alkavo 2’ and ‘MaxMa 14’. The most dwarfing rootstocks were ‘Gisela 5’ and ‘Gisela 6’. The highest cumulative yield tree^‑1 and yield efficiency were on ‘MaxMa 60’, ‘IK-M9’ and ‘F 12/1’. No significant differences were found in the average fruit weight and in the chemical composition of fruit.