Comparative investigations of Oblachinska sour cherry on own root and grafted on mahaleb

Nikola Saraginovski, Toso Arsov, Viktor Gjamovski, Marjan Kiprijanovski

Abstract: Oblachinska sour cherry originates from the population of sour cherry from the Balkan Peninsula. This variety has high economic value for the Balkan region. In the Republic of Macedonia Oblachinska sour cherry is a unique cultivar which is cultivated in commercial orchards. These orchards are mainly established by own rooted trees. Despite numerous advantages, own rooted plants have a lot of disadvantages such as: poor development of root system, drought sensitivity, suckering, uniformity of the trees, mechanical harvest unsuitability, and root borer suffering in dry conditions. In order to eliminate these negative characteristics, we carried out a comparative investigation of this variety planted on own roots and grafted on Prunus mahaleb. The research was conducted in productive orchard in Tikves region (central part of Macedonia). The orchard was established in 2002 and the research was conducted in 4 consecutive years (2005-2008). Two variants of grafted trees on mahaleb were evaluated, grafted on height of 10 and 80 cm. Own rooted trees were used as a control. The vegetative growth of the trees, the yield and the fruit quality were followed during the investigation. An excellent compatibility on Oblachinska sour cherry with mahaleb rootstock was noticed from the recorded dates. The trees are medium vigorous, they are more tolerant to drought and attacks of root borer. The high grafted trees have better growth, and the yield and the fruit quality are better compared to other variants.

Keywords: fruit quality; grafting; productivity; Prunus cerasus; rootstock; yield

Date published: 2019-01-04