Elsevier

Scientia Horticulturae

Volume 129, Issue 2, 10 June 2011, Pages 227-231
Scientia Horticulturae

Performance of ‘Tahiti’ lime on twelve rootstocks under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2011.03.032Get rights and content

Abstract

Faced with new challenges, such as emerging diseases, shortening of orchard longevity, and larger social and environmental demands from consumers, practices such as rootstock diversification, irrigation and high density plantings have become relevant for the Brazilian citrus industry. This research had the objective to evaluate the performance of irrigated and non-irrigated ‘Tahiti’ lime trees grafted on 12 rootstocks and one interstock. Plots were distributed following a randomized block design, with four replicates and one plant per plot. Rootstocks influenced plant vigor, especially ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate, which reduced tree height by approximately 47% compared to the ‘Rangpur’ lime. Trees that were budded on more vigorous rootstocks showed higher yield when grown without irrigation than with irrigation. The ‘1646’ citradia and ‘Morton’ citrange rootstocks performed particularly well. On the other hand, the plants on less vigorous rootstocks showed better performance in terms of yield under irrigation than the same combinations without irrigation, especially those grafted on the tetraploid ‘Carrizo’ and ‘Troyer’ citranges, ‘Swingle’ citrumelo, ‘Davis A’ trifoliate and ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate. Plants budded on the ‘1708’ citradia had high yields under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions. The effect of interstock on plant vigor was dependent of rootstock. Interstocked plants on ‘Davis A’ trifoliate were higher than those without interstock. On the other hand, interstocked plants on Catania 2 ‘Volkamer’ lemon were less vigorous than those without interstock.

Highlights

► Invigorating rootstocks grown without irrigation induce high yield. ► Yield varies between irrigated and non-irrigated groves. ► Trifoliata ‘Flying Dragon’ is a suitable rootstock for high density ‘Tahiti’ lime.

Introduction

The citrus industry faces new challenges worldwide, including emergence of diseases, shortening of orchard life span, and larger social and environmental demands imposed by consumers. In Brazil, four varieties of sweet orange represent nearly 92% of the citrus plants in the State of São Paulo, and a single type of rootstock, the ‘Rangpur’ lime, accounts for 85% of the rootstocks used in citrus groves (Bové and Ayres, 2007). In this context, rootstock diversification, irrigation and high density planting practices become relevant.

On the other hand, production and international market of ‘Tahiti’ lime have significantly expanded in the recent years. In order to sustain this developing market, it is very important to create adequate conditions to extent ‘Tahiti’ lime harvest period, with rootstock diversification and irrigation. Over 85% of the citrus groves in Brazil are not irrigated. Experiments involving ‘Tahiti’ lime are scarce, but the partial results already allow to characterize some rootstocks (Stuchi et al., 2003, Stenzel and Neves, 2004).

Considering that there has been a growing interest in ‘Tahiti’ lime production driven by the need for higher crop yields and the possibility of producing fruit during the off-season period, at higher market prices, the objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of irrigated and non-irrigated ‘Tahiti’ lime trees budded on 12 rootstocks and on one interstock.

Section snippets

Field trial and plant material

Trees were planted in December of 2003 in the northern São Paulo State, Brazil (20°53′16″S latitude; 48°28′11″W longitude; 601 m altitude) on an 8.0 m × 5.0 m tree spacing, corresponding to a plant density of 250 trees ha−1. The soil was Haplustox with a medium texture (38% clay), and the climate was Köeppen's Cwa, with maximum and minimum temperatures of 30.5 °C and 16.8 °C, respectively, and an annual rainfall of 1534.7 mm. ‘IAC-5’ ‘Tahiti’ lime (Citrus latifolia (Yu. Tanaka) Tanaka) was grafted on the

Plant height and canopy volume

The rootstock clearly affected plant growth. In the non-irrigated experiment, the more vigorous plants reached approximately 3.6 m in height and had 33 m3 of canopy volume, while in the irrigated experiment, the more vigorous plants were 4.0 m in height and had 45 m3 of canopy volume six years after planting. In both experiments, the rootstock that produced the most vigorous ‘Tahiti’ lime plants were Catania 2 ‘Volkamer’ lemon, ‘Orlando’ tangelo, ‘Morton’ citrange and ‘Swingle’ citrumelo (Table 1).

Discussion

The low vigor and high yield efficiency traits of plants budded on ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate suggest that this rootstock is suitable for high density plantations (Stuchi et al., 2003, Cantuarias-Avilés et al., 2010). Plants on ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate occupied an area of 5.78 m × 2.79 m in the irrigated experiment and an area of 5.05 m × 2.17 m in the non-irrigated trial, as calculated from plant diameter measured after 6 years from planting, assuming 15% of tree overlapping along the row (De Negri

Conclusions

  • -

    ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate is a suitable rootstock for irrigated high density ‘Tahiti’ lime groves.

  • -

    The effect of rootstock on plant size and fruit yield can vary according to use of interstock. The ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate used as interstock increases the yield of ‘Tahiti’ lime grafted onto ‘Davis A’ trifoliate and ‘Swingle’ citrumelo, but reduces the yield of plants budded on ‘Morton’ citrange.

  • -

    Invigorating rootstocks grown without irrigation have high yields, with the ‘1646’ citradia and the

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for the Ph.D. student fellowship to the first author (Proc. 07/00286-0) and grant support to this research. The authors also acknowledge Mr. Luiz Gustavo Parolin and Mr. Dimas Alves Toledo for technical support, and Dr. Jay L. Schell for critical comments.

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