Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXV, Issue 1
Written by Lavinia Mihaela ILIESCU, Cosmin Mihai ALEXANDRU, Florin STĂNICĂ
Grafting of kiwifruit cultivars is more and more a necessity due to some soil born problems as high calcium and pH, plants die-off or “Kiwi Moria” etc. A solution can be the use of 'Z1 Vitroplant’ rootstock (A. deliciosa x A. arguta hybrid obtained at Vitroplant Italia) that shows good resistance to cold, ferric chlorosis, low permeable soil and water scarcity. 'Hayward’ and 'Bruno’ cultivars, and some new valuable hybrid genotypes, obtained through intra and interspecific crosses, were used for grafting. The 'Z1’ rootstock was planted in 10 liters pots and grafted in April, in a cold greenhouse, where the temperature varied between 20-24°C. Scions were taken from mother plants in January and preserved in dormancy at 2-3°C. Whip and tongue grafting was applied and Flexiband was used as wrapping material. To reduce water loss and oxidation, Arborinn special wax was used. Grafting success rate, rootstock, woody scion and main scion shoot diameters, total scion shoots length, total number and average shoots length, were analysed at 4 months after grafting. The results showed significant differences between cultivars for most of the analysed parameters.
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