Fourteen rootstocks were compared in a trial started in 1991, for Eureka lemon cv. km 47, nucellar clone, in Araraquara, Brazil. The rootstocks tested were Orlando and Seminole tangelos (C. reticulata Blanco x C. paradisi Macfad.), Cleopatra mandarin (C. reshni hort. ex Tanaka), Sunki mandarin [C. sunki (Hayata) hort. ex Tanaka], Rangpur Lime (C. limonia Osbeck), Rough Lemon cv. African (C. jambhiri Lush.), and Volkamerican cv Catania 2 (C. volkameriana V. Ten. & Pasq.), sweet orange [C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck] cv. Caipira DAC, sour orange (C. aurantium L.), Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf. cv. EEL, P. trifoliata (L.) Raf. cv. Kryder 8-5, Morton citrange [P. trifoliata (L.) Raf. x C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck], C. karna Raf. and C. pennivesiculata (Lush.) Tanaka. Yield was measured by weight of fruits per tree, for a period of five years (1998-2002). The best yielding rootstocks were C. pennivesiculata and Cleopatra mandarin (> 220 kg/tree). Citrus karna, both tangelos, both trifoliates and sweet orange cv. Caipira DAC presented the lowest fruit yields (<180 kg/tree). Fruit quality and percentage of trees affected by gummosis were also studied. No significant variation was observed for fruit quality characteristics for trees on different rootstocks, while trees on C. penivesiculata and sour orange were resistant to gummosis infection.
selection; breeding; fruit yield; citrus limon
