GRAFTING COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN THE QUINCE ROOTSTOCK cv. EMC AND PEARS CULTIVARS

Abstract

The aim of this research was to verify the grafting compatibility between pear cultivars Cascatense, Carrick and Seleta and the quince rootstock ´EMC‘, with three-years old plants. The orchard was growing in field conditions in an high/density system (2000 trees ha-1) and pruned in form of central leader and irrigated with a drip irrigation system (2 L h-1 emitters per tree). The analyzed parameters were: 1) Compatibility of grafting, verified through the diameter of the trunk and visual evaluation; 2) Height of plant and 3) Canopy Volume. The diameter of the trunk was similar for all the treatments, except when compared with the grafting point, which had presented a higher diameter in all rootstock/cultivar combinations. By the visual observation of the grafting point, it was verified that only in the interation Cascatense/EMC the rootstock presented a reduced development in relation to cultivar canopy, besides presenting an extreme developed hipertrofia the grafting point. The cultivars Carrick and Seleta had presented smaller differences, which can be considered normal even if a light hipertrofia was observed. The cv. Cascatense presented greater development with 84.67 cm and 0.144 m3, for height and canopy volume, respectively. On the other hand, the cv. Select showed the lowest development (70.13 cm and 0.022 m3, respectively). The cultivars Carrick and Seleta presented a good grafting compatibility with the EMC quince roostock.