Cherry Times offers its readers the reports on cherry rootstocks presented at the Macfrut 2024 International Rootstock Symposium.
The Krymsk Experimental Breeding Station has a long history of breeding interspecific rootstocks for stone fruit. The 6000 Prunus accessions in their collection are being used for combining useful traits of stress and disease resistances into new interspecific rootstock genotypes suitable as rootstocks for multiple stone fruit species.
For testing and propagation in Europe, the United States and several other countries outside Russia, Varieties International has obtained a license and has imported several promising rootstocks suitable for almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum.
The selection of these interspecific rootstocks was made on basis of the induced tree vigor and tolerance to various environmental stresses like drought, flooding, frost and the pH and salt content of the soil. At present seven Krymsk rootstocks have been patented and have been commercially released.
Image 1: Frank Maas.
Since 2017 about 20 new selections have been imported into Europe and the USA. After release from quarantine these rootstocks have been propagated and test trees have been grown. In Europe the first test trees of plum varieties ‘Jubilieum’ and ‘Opal’ and sweet cherry varieties ‘Kordia’ and ‘Regina’ were planted in 2023, using rootstock genotypes with a vigor between very dwarfing to semi-dwarfing.
After the first growing season in the differences in tree vigor are already becoming visible. However, it will take several more years to evaluate how the fruit production and growth the trees will develop and to find out which of these rootstocks will be a better choice for the fruit grower than the ones currently used.
Download the full report here
Download the presentation here
Frank Maas
Varieties International/Nedworc Foundation
frank.maas.nl@gmail.com
11 Sep 2024
A study conducted by Chilean and Spanish researchers analyzed the balance that sweet cherry trees must manage between responding to drought conditions and defending against pathogens like Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (Pss). The study focuses on cv. Bing and cv. Santina.
12 Jul 2024
Agrion researchers Davide Nari and Valentina Roera presented the latest developments in cherry and apricot variety comparisons, while Francesca Pettiti and Luca Nari showed updates from the Forficula Auricolaria and Drosophila Suzukii trials.
12 Feb 2026
A University of Hannover study shows that Parka®, a fatty-acid-based cuticle supplement, does not reduce rain-induced cherry cracking. Trials on six cultivars found no effect on cuticle mass, elasticity or fruit water uptake under simulated rainfall conditions.
12 Feb 2026
A 25-year genetic data analysis from the Genome Database for Rosaceae identifies 16 QTL hotspots and 17 syntenic regions across Prunus species. The findings strengthen breeding strategies for peach, sweet cherry and almond, improving fruit quality, yield and disease resistance.
