Revista de Ciências Agrárias (Jan 2022)
Screening for adventitious rooting in clonal selections of peach rootstocks
Abstract
The peach tree (Prunus persica) is one of the main fruit specie in temperate climate in the world, and its fruits are appreciated for fresh consumption or processed. The use of clonal rootstocks for peach trees is being promoted in the main producing countries, aiming at the preservation of genetic characteristics in selected genotypes. In the present research, the objective was to carry out a screening in 12 clonal selections of rootstocks (Prunus persica) to evaluate adventitious rooting capacity of softwood cuttings under intermittent mist system, comparing them with three reference cultivars. After fifty-three days of cutting set, determinations of nine variables were carried out, and in all of them there were significant differences among treatments. The screening allowed identification of rootstock selections that showed adventitious rooting capacity similar or even superior to the reference cultivars Capdeboscq, Okinawa and Sharpe, indicating advances in the selection process. Cutting mortality, in general, was high and occurred mainly before rooting initiation, indicating early leaf fall. Among tested selections, VEH-AGA-12-06, RB-MAC-12-08 and RB-MAC-12-09 stood out with the highest percentages of live rooted cuttings, and VEH-AGA-12-04 as to root number and root length.
