Effect of Six Rootstocks on 'Forelle' Pear Tree Growth, Production, Fruit Quality and Leaf Mineral Content

Rootstock scion somatogenetic interactions in perennial composite plants

“…In apricot, Hernández et al (2010) found flesh firmness, fruit shape, pulp thickness, stone weight, percent pulp, soluble solids, and fruit color were all rootstock effected though only 1 year of data were presented leading to the possibility that these traits may be highly environmentally regulated as seen in studies on other crops. Similar to these results, North and Cook (2008) identified a significant role of the rootstock on fruit firmness, background color, and total soluble solids of pears. Also, Sugar et al (2005) showed russeting, a physiological alteration of the pear epidermis that becomes corky, was effected by the pear rootstock.…”

“…Control of pear yield on a per tree basis based on the rootstock used was demonstrated by North and Cook (2008). The yield correlated strongly with the number of fruit per tree while fruit weight did not correlate to overall yield.…”

“…Gijon et al (2010) showed that pistachio leaf area and leaf and stem dry weights varied based on the rootstock used. In pear, the number of growth points and total length of annual growth varied based on the rootstock used (North and Cook 2008). …”

“…Yield is controlled by the root-stock in various perennial species including the rubber tree (Cardinal et al 2007), grape (Soar et al 2006; Main et al 2002), peach (Tsipouridis and Thomidis 2005), mango (Smith et al 2003), sweet cherry (Whiting et al 2005; Robinson et al 2006), pear (Bertelsen and Callesen 2001; North and Cook 2008), clementine (Bassal 2009) and apricot (Hernández et al 2010). The changes in yield varied up to 6.5-fold (Whiting et al 2005) depending on the crop and the type of rootstocks examined.…”

“…Fruit weight was widely noted to be controlled by the rootstocks in many species including peach (Tsipouridis and Thomidis 2005), grape (Main et al 2002; Koundouras et al 2009), grapefruit (McCollum et al 2002), pear (Bertelsen and Callesen 2001; North and Cook 2008; Sugar et al 2005), apricot (Hernández et al 2010), and sweet cherry (Whiting et al 2005). Contrary to the aforementioned studies, Bassal (2009) found no change to most fruit qualities such as fruit size, weight, juice %, and peel thickness of clementine.…”