Adventitious rooting of cultivars and clonal selections of Prunus spp. rootstock under intermittent mist system.

To reduce peach tree losses due the Peach Tree Short Life (PTSL), the main research line in Brazil is to select tolerant rootstock and perpetuate it by cloning methods. The objective was to evaluate adventitious rooting capacity of softwood cuttings of three cultivars and several clonal rootstock selections of Prunus spp., under intermittent mist system. Two trials were conducted and ‘Capdeboscq’, ‘Okinawa’ (P. persica) and ‘Sharpe’ [‘Chickasaw’ (P. angustifolia Marsh.) x Prunus spp.] were used as reference cultivars. After 53 days (trial 1) and 72 days (trial 2) from the cutting setting, we conclude that softwood cuttings under intermittent mist system are a feasible way to propagate peach rootstock selections of 2010/2011 PTSL selection cycle. Root quality was satisfactory in most selections, with high percentages of cuttings suitable for transplanting and excellent root number and root length. OS-GRA-10-17, VEHGRA-10-31, VEH-GRA-10-32, VEH-GRA-10-37 and VEH-GRA-10-38 selections had the highest mortality and the lower percentages of live rooted cuttings. The ease of vegetative propagation must be taken into account in more promising rootstock