Regional Fruit Research Station, Abohar-152 116.
A rootstock trial on Jaffa and Valencia Late cultivars of sweet orange was laid out in 1969 using 9 rootstocks; namely Jatti Khatti, Kharna Khatta, Troyer and Carrizo (citranges), Pectinifera, Pineapple, Rangpur Lime, Citrumelo and Cleopatra. Results obtained revealed that Jaffa trees budded on Jatti Khatti produced significantly more trunk girth, tree volume (53.8 m2) and yield (290 fruits/tree) than all other rootstocks tried. Both the citranges gave better TSS in fruit juice than Jatti Khatti. Survival of the trees was 100 per cent on Jatti Khatti and 92 per cent on Pineapple rootstock. All the trees on Jatti Khatti were in very healthy condition; while Pectinifera and Pineapple showed 17 per cent and 25 per cent trees in declined health, respectively, during February 1982.
The results on Valencia Late showed that the trees budded on Jatti Khatti were significantly larger (58.2 m3) than all the other rootstocks, except Cleopatra (54.4 m3) Fruit yield was significantly more on Jatti Khatti (185 fruits/tree) and Kharna Khatta (184 fruits/tree) than all the other rootstocks. Rangpur Lime showed significantly more TSS (11.0 per cent) than all other rootstocks tried. All Valencia trees budded on different rootstocks survived, except those on Kharna Khatta (92 per cent survival). All the trees of Jatti Khatti. Troyer, Carrizo and Cleopatra rootstocks were in healthy condition with smooth bud union.
From these results, it may be inferred that for Jaffa, Jatti Khatti proved as the best rootstock, and Pineapple the second best. For Valencia Late also, Jatti Khatti proved to be the best rootsiock, followed by Cleopatra.
