Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1952 Page: 34
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34 REPORT ON EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 1952
Rootstock Problems
Rootstocks may have a direct bearing on the size of trees, their
resistance to low temperatures and certain diseases, and the time they
come into profitable fruiting. From an economical standpoint,
smaller trees are desirable since they are easier to prune, spray, and
thin, and the fruit from them can be harvested at a lower cost than
from large trees. One obstacle to the general use of selected rootstocks
has been the difficulty involved in obtaining reliable dwarfing
stocks due to the fact that proper techniques for identifying the
various rootstocks have not yet been developed. A commercial planting
of apples on dwarfing stocks was established at the Michigan
station in 1945 with trees set 15 x 20 feet apart. This orchard is
already in production and the trees are not yet competing with one
another for space.
That all apple varieties cannot be successfully grown on specific
rootstocks was shown by the Indiana station. For example, a definite
incompatibility was found to exist between Golden Delicious scions
and Virginia Crab rootstocks. Observations in an 11-year-old dwarf
apple orchard showed Malling type I to be a promising rootstock for
several scion varieties. To date, trees on this stock have produced
twice the fruit obtained in a comparable orchard on commercial seedling
rootstocks.
Where low temperatures are a problem, the South Dakota station
reported that the best results were obtained by using Dolgo and Hibernal
scions on Siberian Crab rootstocks as hardy framework stocks for
top-working apple trees. The New Hampshire station found that
Malus siklcimensis is a promising foundation stock for producing
McIntosh, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Macoun, and Cortland
apples.
As a means of reducing fire-blight damage to cultivated pears and
new pear seedlings, the Ohio station has used successfully the resistant
Old Home pear as the framework for trees.
Storage and Handling
The new fruit hormone 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxypropionic acid (2,4,5Tp),
used to delay the dropping of ripening apples, was observed by
the New York (Cornell) station to have a stimulative effect on respiration
and ripening of the fruit. However, by adding 100 to 200 p. p. m.
of maleic hydrazide to the hormone spray the stimulus to ripening was
reduced without decreasing the holding qualities of the fruits.
As a result of Cornell station work on the purification of air in apple
storages with the activated carbon, four to six new carbon-controlled
storage plants are being erected in New York each year. One was also
built in Vermont and one in New Hampshire. In the spring of 1951,
apples from carbon-controlled storages commanded a premium of up
to $2 a bushel over regular cold-storage fruit.
That time of harvesting is an important consideration in the storage
of apples was shown by the Ohio station. Rome apples suffered less
superficial scald in storage when the fruits were allowed to ripen
properly on the trees. It was estimated that approximately 160 days
sh would elapse from full bloom to harvest.
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United States. Office of Experiment Stations. Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1952, book, January 1953; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5990/m1/36/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.