In this study, 30 genotypes of genus Pyrus (five European cultivars, 16 Asian cultivars, three rootstocks, four interspecific hybrids, one landrace cultivar from Czech Republic ('Krvavka'), Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge. and one intergeneric hybrid (Cydomalus)) were tested using AFLP markers. Twelve primer combinations generated a number of 1251 fragments of which 1064 were polymorphic with an average polymorphism of 85.3%. The dendrogram, created by using the UPGMA method, revealed a distinct genetic relationship between European and Asian pear groups. The intergeneric hybrid Cydomalus was separated in the cluster tree from both groups. The level of similarity coefficient between European and Asian pears was 0.75. Despite the fact that Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge was clustered in the European pear group, the average similarity coefficient between the European pear group and Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge (0.7704) was comparable to the similarity coefficient between the Asian pear group and Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge (0.768). Thus, the botanic species Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge can likely be considered as an intermediate genotype between European and Asian pears. The cultivar 'Talgarskaja Krasavica' (chance seedling of 'Forest Beauty'), which pomologically belongs to the European pear group was clustered together with the interspecific hybrid 'Wu Jiu Xinag' ('Ya Li' × 'Bartlett') which on the other hand belongs to the Asian pear group. Thus, due to its position in the dendrogram the cultivar 'Talgarskaja Krasavica' could be considered as an interspecific hybrid.

Modern high quality nursery trees pruning as knipboom grow and crop significantly better during the first years after planting in the orchard. High quality nursery trees perform better in the first years after plantation in the orchard than average or low quality nursery trees. Nurserymen are focused on production of such trees in the shortest time (one year). However, fruit tree species and varieties differ in their abilities to produce these trees. The goal of this work was to increase the quality and branching of one-year-old nursery trees at two plum and two sweet cherry varieties by the treatments of 12 different preparations of plant growth regulators (PGRs). Before lifting, branching and trunk parameters were recorded. Data showed that Ethephone+Putrescine+GA4+7 and Ethephone+Putrescine+6-BAP significantly increased almost all parameters at both plum varieties. Both sweet cherry varieties were sufficiently branching with Globaryl+epibrassinolide treatment, however the lateral shoots of ‘Celeste’ sweet cherry variety were of low quality. The same was observed after treatment with Progerbalin+4-CPPU+Putrescine. Sweet cherry ‘Kordia’ branched very well after Globaryl and TIBA+PBZ treatments too, however, the lateral shoots after treatment with the latter preparation were of low quality. ‘Kordia’ trees after Globaryl treatment were branched in 94% of cases with more than four lateral shoots.

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The main objective of this work was to verify the possibility of shortening the time needed to produce nursery trees of plums, in view of the economic profitability in nursery production. To achieve this goal, rootstocks Citation®, Ishtara®, Penta®, Torinel®, Pumiselekt and St. Julien (from Wädenswil) were chip budded in the springtime with ‘Shiro’, ‘Angeleno’®, ‘Black Amber’, SLE2014/1, ‘Fertility’ (Asian type plums) and ‘Stanley’ (European type plum) as a control. At the end of the vegetation period, height (from the grafting position), trunk diameter above the place of budding and the number of shoots was recorded for each tree. The Penta® rootstock was evaluated as the most efficient, while ‘Shiro’ variety was evaluated as the most suitable variety. The best variety/rootstock combination was the combination of ‘Shiro’ on Ishtara® rootstock, where 100% of the budded trees reached an average height of 33.0 ± 3.6 cm. The highest trees of an average of 68.3 ± 4.6 cm were recorded for the combination of SLE2014/1 on Torinel® root-stock.