CLONAL PROPAGATION CAPACITY OF TWO NEW APPLE ROOTSTOCKS BY STOOLING

Abstract

This investigation was carried out at General Commission for Scientific
Agriculture Research – Pome and Grapevine Division in Sweida governorate
(Syria), from 2013 to 2017, to evaluate the ability of two new local apple
rootstocks (SukariAlswieda ‘S’and SkarjiAlswieda ‘H’) to vegetative propagation
in stool bed. The results showed that the second year of propagation significantly
produced the highest number of rooted shoots (liners) from each rootstock (7 liners
and 5 liners in ‘S’ and ‘H’ respectively). ‘S’ and ‘H’ rootstocks revealed significant
difference in average produced liners. However, the length and diameter of liners
from ‘H’ rootstock did not show significant difference among studied years, they
were in average 59.1 cm and 6.1 mm respectively.While as, the highest length and
diameter of liners from ‘S’ were in the third year (82.3 cm and 7.6 mm
respectively). On the other hand, the two studied rootstocks produced liners with
good and stable root system which differed in structure between them, that ‘S’
rootstock revealed coarse (woody) roots, while in ‘H’ rootstock the roots were
hairy. The number of roots was in average 17 roots and 12 roots in the liners of ‘S’
and ‘H’ respectively.As well as. the average length of liners roots were 23.4 cm
and 22.2 cm in ‘S’ and ‘H’ respectively. Consequently, the clonal propagation for
the studied rootstocks in stool bed is a sufficient tool to produce liners similar to
the plant parent and they are ready to be budded with cultivars scions.