Sweet cherry rootstocks in high density orchards without irrigation in Central Europe

Climatic conditions in Central Europe are changing. The main issues are connected to hot and dry weather in summer and related water management. While lack of precipitation could be substituted by irrigation, water availability is limited in dry summer. This is a reason why some orchards remain un-irrigated. Research on the influence of weather on the growth and yield of cherry trees in non-irrigated orchards has been launched in the Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology Holovousy. The Czech late-ripening sweet cherry cultivars ‘Justyna’, ‘Kordia’, and ‘Tamara’ were chosen for evaluation in rootstock trials. These cultivars were grafted on rootstocks ‘Weiroot 720’, ‘PiKu 1’, ‘Gisela 3’, ‘Gisela 5’, and ‘Krymsk 6’ and planted at a spacing of 4×1.5 m. The same scion cultivars were grafted on ‘Gisela 6’, ‘Krymsk 5’, ‘Colt’, and ‘Alkavo’ rootstocks and were planted at a spacing of 5×1.5 m. Yield, yield efficiency, flower set, fruit set, start of blossoming, length of one-year shoots (cm), and TCSA (cm²) were evaluated for 1 season. The highest harvest was 3.8, 4.67, 5.17 kg tree^‑1 on ‘Justyna’ on ‘Gisela 6’, ‘Kordia’ on ‘Krymsk 5’, ‘Tamara’ on ‘Gisela 3’, respectively.