Propagation of Different Stone Fruit Rootstocks Using Softwood and Hardwood Cuttings

The presented article summarises part of the long-term propagation experiments on fruit tree rootstocks carried out at the Faculty of Horticulture in Lednice. The goal of this long-term evaluation project is to verify the propagation potential and effectiveness of fruit tree rootstocks using different concentrations of phytohormones. The rooting potential of hardwood cuttings of stone fruit rootstocks such as Pumiselect (P. pumila L.), VVA-1 (P. tomentosa x P. cerasifera), AP-1 (P. cerasifera Ehrh. x P. persica L.), PS-1 (probably P. persica L. x P. cerasifera Ehrh.) etc. were evaluated in this experiment. The best results were obtained with Pumiselect that had an overall rooting percentage of 63.5%. The rooting potential of softwood cuttings was evaluated in rootstocks such as AP-1, VVA-1, LESIBERIAN (P. persica), which rooted successfully (AP-1 - 60.5%, VVA-1 - 62.7%). Also other rootstocks such as ISTHARA, MRS etc. were evaluated. The rootstock MY-KL-A (Prunus cerasifera L.) was used for a comparison, control cultivar, due to its easy propagation by hardwood cuttings. This study evaluated the time of year for cutting excision, the application of hormone stimulation as well as heat callusing and rooting potential. This experiment evaluated both commercial stimulators and non-commercial stimulators modified for use on softwood cuttings of selected pome fruit and stone fruit rootstocks. There were no statistically significant differences in (at the 95% confidence level) among the phytohormones used in the stone fruit rootstock experiment. AP-1 and VVA-1 were the best rooting rootstocks.