Manas Journal of Agriculture Veterinary and Life Sciences

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Quince-A, Quince-C and BA-29 rootstocks on vegetative growth, phenological characteristics, flowering and fruit set rates of the Hafif Çukurgöbek (HCG) loquat cultivar. In the study, loquat seedling rootstock was also used as a control. Phenological observations such as the flowering periods (beginning of flowering, first flowering, full bloom, end of flowering and fruit set dates), the inflorescence characteristics (cluster length, number of peduncle, number of flower buds, number of flowers, number of fruit set, number of harvesting fruits per cluster), and vegetative growth parameters(annual shoot length, trunk diameter of stock and scion) of the cultivar/rootstock combinations in the study were investigated. In addition, percent blossom ratios, % initial fruit set, and % final fruit set were determined according to the rootstocks. The HÇG cultivar which are grafted on different rootstocks completed its flowering period between 26 November and 10 February. The first flowering occurred on BA-29 (14 December) at the earliest, and at the latest on loquat seedling rootstock (January 4). Full bloom, and the end of flowering was occurred the earliest in Quince-A and BA-29 rootstocks (January 4 and January 21, respectively), followed by Quince-C (January 11 and January 25, respectively) and loquat seedling (January 29 and February 10, respectively). The fruits of the plants grafted on Quince-A and BA-29 rootstocks matured two days earlier than the other two rootstocks. The effect of rootstocks on the length of the inflorescence, the number of flower buds and fruits harvested per cluster were found to be statistically significant. In terms of inflorescence length, the highest value was determined on Quince-C rootstock, while the lowest value was determined on Quince-A rootstock. BA-29 rootstock gave the highest value (6.3 units) in terms of the number of fruits harvested. The flowering rate was highest (93.50%) in plants with Quince-C rootstock while the lowest (89.04%) in plants with loquat seedlings. While the highest values in terms of first fruit, young fruit and harvested fruit ratios in the cluster were obtained from plants with BA-29 rootstock (10.54%, 6.14% and 4.87%, respectively); the lowest values were obtained from plants with Quince-A rootstock (8.43%, 4.47% and 2.96%, respectively). Loquat seedling rootstock gave the highest values (65 cm, 41.1 and 43.1 mm, respectively) in terms of annual shoot length, scion and rootstock diameter, while Quince-A rootstock gave the lowest values (47.6 cm, 27.0 mm and 34.4 mm). As a result, BA-29 performed better than the other two quince and loquat seedling rootstocks.