THE EFFECT OF INTERGRAFTING ON FRUIT QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF PEACH TREE 'JUBILEU'

A.R. Rufato, Z.F.P. Tomaz, C.X. Gonçalves, S.S. Silveira, L. Rufato, F.R.C. Gomes
Researchs concerning peach rootstocks in Brazil have still not given response to the numerable requests for reduction of plant vigor, allowing a more condense plantation. Intergraft is a practice that can be used to reduce exceeding vigor, when rootstocks are not available to accomplish this purpose. Intending to evaluate the outcome of intergraft on fruit quality and productivity of peach trees, an experiment was set in 2002 in a didactic orchard at “Centro Agropecuário da Palma” of Universidade Federal de Pelotas” (Brazil). The cultivar ‘Jubileu’ was used intergrafted with 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm of the cultivar ‘Granada’ plus a control group (non-intergrafted trees). The rootstock ‘Capdeboscq’ was raised from seed germination. The intergraft and the scion cultivar were grafted onto the rootstock by budding technique in January and July 2001, respectively. The parameters evaluated at harvest time of the crop 2006 were: yield per hectare, average fruit weight, fruit firmness, total soluble solids, epidermis coloration and fruit grading. The average fruit weight and fruit grading were not meaningfully influenced by the different intergraft lengths. The yield per hectare, fruit firmness and total soluble solids were influenced by the different intergraft lengths. The 20-cm long intergraft showed the lowest yield per hectare. Trees with 20-cm long intergraft produced higher fruit firmness and total soluble solids. Both parameters could be represented by exponential functions: the fruit firmness had a minimum point at 7 cm and total soluble solids had a minimum point at 9.3 cm of intergraft length. The yield per hectare could be represented by a linear decreasing curve. The intergraft technique is positive for quality fruits for ‘Jubileu’ plants, without downside outcomes in the productivity and classification fruit.
Rufato, A.R., Tomaz, Z.F.P., Gonçalves, C.X., Silveira, S.S., Rufato, L. and Gomes, F.R.C. (2010). THE EFFECT OF INTERGRAFTING ON FRUIT QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF PEACH TREE 'JUBILEU'. Acta Hortic. 872, 349-352
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.872.48
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.872.48
yield per hectare, fruit firmness, peach grading, tree vigor reduction
English

Acta Horticulturae