Contribution of plum and cherry rootstocks to virus incidence in New Zealand stone fruit trees

Abstract

Rootstocks used in the past for stone fruit trees in New Zealand were traced, where possible, back to their time of importation. Some of the rootstocks had been in use in New Zealand since before the turn of this century, but the most important were imported mainly from England between 1930 and 1960. Rootstocks used commonly for plums (Prunus salicina Lindl.), apricots (P. armenica L.), and sweet cherries (P. avium L.), and also some which were trialled but did not become popular, were tested for the presence of virus diseases. With plums, the four most important rootstocks ('Brompton', 'Marianna', 'Myrobalan B', and 'St Julien A') were free from infection. However, Prunus necrotic ringspot, dark green sunken mottle (apple chlorotic leaf spot), and plum line pattern viruses occurred in others. In cherries, Prunus necrotic ringspot virus occurred in most of the rootstocks, with prune dwarf, green ring mottle, and little cherry viruses sometimes also being present. 'Kentish Red', a P. cerasus (L.) cherry rootstock, had the highest incidence of infection. Presence of the viruses in the plum and cherry rootstocks would have contributed to the high incidence of infection in plum, apricot, and cherry trees, and explained why peaches (P. persica L.) and nectarines (P. persica var. nucipersica (Borkh.) C. K. Schneider), which are normally grown on peach seedling rootstocks were generally less commonly infected. H96045

Himalayan wild cherry (Prunus cerasoides D. Don): a new host of Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus

“…is known to harbour several viruses (M yrta and S avino 2007). Viruses, including Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) in the cherry rootstocks, contribute to the high incidence of infection in cherry trees (W ood 1997).…”

Viruses and phytoplasma in European pear trees in New Zealand and the role of these pathogens in the compatibility of pear with quince rootstocks

“…In previous papers (Wood 1996(Wood , 1997, it was demonstrated how virus and phytoplasma diseases present in apple and stone fruit clonal rootstocks were instrumental in increasing the incidence of these diseases in apple and stone fruit trees in New Zealand. As for most of this century pear cultivars for orchard use were propagated on seedling rather than clonal rootstocks, and as none of the pathogens are known to be seed transmitted (Wood 1972(Wood , 1979b, it seemed unlikely that their rootstocks were the source of infection, and the possibility of the pear cultivars being infected from the time of importation was therefore considered.…”