Citrus nursery tree production using different scion and rootstock combinations in screen house

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of sweet orange seedlings ‘Pera’ and ‘Westin’, mandarin-Murcott ‘Piedmont’ and acid lime ‘Tahiti’ grafted on 14 citrus rootstocks in protected nursery. The citrus nursery tree production of ‘Pera D-6’ and ‘Westin’ sweet oranges, ‘Piemonte’ tangor and ‘CNPMF-02’ Persian lime was evaluated in screen house after budding onto 11 hybrid rootstocks: ‘Indio’, ‘Riverside’ and ‘San Diego’ citrandarins, ‘Swingle 4475’ citrumelo and HTR-051, TSKC x (LCR x TR)-040 and 059, LV K x LCR-010 and 038, TSKC x CTTR-002 and TSKC x CTSW-041, besides ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate, ‘Santa Cruz’ Rangpur lime and ‘Tropical’ Sunki mandarin. Biometric and physiological variables were collected, and the experimental design was split-plot randomized blocks in 4 x 14 factorial, with three replications and ten trees in the unit. ‘CNPMF-02’ Persian lime was the most vigorous scion variety, followed by ‘Piemonte’ tangor and the sweet oranges for the last, regardless of the rootstock. Citrus nursery trees budded onto ‘Tropical’ Sunki mandarin had higher vegetative and root system growth in combination to all scion varieties evaluated. Citrus nursery trees budded onto ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate and the HTR-051 hybrid need longer period to complete adequate growth due to their lesser vigor induced to all scion varieties. No incompatibility symptoms were observed in the nursery.