YIELD AND QUALITY OF ‘PERA’ SWEET ORANGE GRAFTED ON DIFFERENT ROOTSTOCKS UNDER RAINFED CONDITIONS

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate, under field conditions, different combinations between ‘Pera’ sweet orange and eight rootstocks: ‘Rangpur’ lime (RL), ‘Volkamer’ lemon (VL), ‘Cleopatra’ mandarin (CM), ‘Sunki Maravilha’ mandarin (SMM), ‘Indio’ and ‘Riverside’ citrandarins, and VL x RL (‘Rangpur’ lime)-010 and TH-051 hybrids. The soil water matric potential (?m) was characterized for all scion-rootstock combinations at distance of 1.0m from the trunk at the plant row direction and depths of 0.25 m, 0.50 m 0.90 m in the dry and wet seasons. For two years, fruit production parameters and fruit quality were assessed. Differences of Ym among scion-rootstock combinations were observed during the dry season (p=0.05). The lowest Ym values for RL and the highest for TH-051 indicate the existence of different intrinsic mechanisms affecting the water extraction of each scion-rootstock combination. Rootstocks have influenced fruit yield and quality (p=0.05). The best combinations for fruit quality and production were sweet orange grafted on ‘Riverside’, ‘Indio’ and TH-051 rootstocks