The present work has as objective to study the emergency and development of quince seedlings with potential to be used as rootstock. The work was developed in the APTA Center Fruits/IAC, from May/05 to January/06. Seeds of 'Mendoza INTA-37', 'Provence', 'Portugal' and 'Japonês' quince were collected from mature fruits, washed in water, dried under shade for 48 h, and stratified in cold for 20 days. After that, these seeds were sowed in polystyrene trays (72 cell of 120 cm³/cell), containing vermiculite as substrate. The percentage of emergency was determined after 30 days, at intervals of 10 days, in a total of four collections. On the end of this period, 10 seedlings were removed from each replication and evaluated the height of the aerial part, the number of leaves, and the medium dry mass of aerial and root parts. Also, 10 uniform representative seedlings of each replication were separeted and transplanted to polyethylene bags (capacity of 3 L) containing substrate composed by soil + cattle manure + sand (in the volumetric proportion of 1:1:1) fertilized with 191 g CaHPO3, 10 g KCl and 100 g CaCO3 in 100 L substrate. Then plants were maintained under shading sieve (50% shading), being irrigated periodically. The height and diameter of seedlings were evaluated at intervals of 30 days until the end of the sixth evaluation (after 180 days of transplanting). The 'Japonês' quince presented greater emergency percentage (70%), shoot length (111,83 cm) and diameter (0,7 cm), showing it has greater performance and an excellent alternative as quince rootstocks.
Chaenomeles sinensis L.; Cydonia oblonga Mill.; propagation
