Grafting performances of some standard apple cultivars grafted onto MM106 rootstock

This study was performed in 2023-2024 to ascertain the grafting success and sapling development of some standard apple cultivars grafted onto MM106 rootstock (‘Jeromine’, ‘Galaxy Gala’, ‘Red Chief’, ‘Scarlet’, ‘Fuji’, ‘Mondial Gala’ and ‘Granny Smith’) in Samsun ecological conditions, Türkiye. In the study, graft take ratio (%), sprouting ratio (%), sapling survival ratio (%), sapling height (cm), graft shoot diameter (mm), graft shoot length (cm), internode distance (cm), first quality sapling ratio (%), leaf number (piece plant-1), leaf width (cm), length (cm) and area (cm²), petiole length (cm) and thickness (mm), and chlorophyll content (CCI) were examined. The study revealed significant variations among the cultivars in all examined parameters, with the exception of leaf length. The highest graft take and sprouting ratios were in the ‘Jeromine’ (96.91% and 95.81%), while the lowest were in the ‘Red Chief’ cultivar (60.97% and 60.17%). The highest sapling survival ratio and first-quality sapling ratio were observed in the ‘Fuji’ (91.82% and 82.73%), while the lowest were in the ‘Red Chief’ cultivar (54.40% and 37.17%). Sapling height varied from 105.27 cm (‘Fuji’) to 84.10 cm (‘Red Chief’), graft shoot length varied from 88.27 cm (‘Galaxy Gala’) to 67.43 cm (‘Red Chief’), graft shoot diameter varied from 12.23 cm to 10.22 cm, internode length varied from 2.96 cm (‘Red Chief’) to 3.60 cm (‘Jeromine’). Regardless of cultivar, the leaf number ranged from 28.67 to 62.47 pieces plant-1, leaf width ranged from 4.13 cm to 5.30 cm, and petiole length ranged 2.36 cm to 2.95 cm. The leaf area ranged from 23.64 to 35.79 cm², with the leaf area of the ‘Galaxy Gala’ cultivar being higher than that of the other cultivars. Chlorophyll index varied between 29.21 (‘Mondial Gala’) and 43.89 CCI (‘Fuji’). The study found that the highest sapling growth performance on MM106 rootstock was achieved by the cultivars ‘Fuji’ and ‘Galaxy Gala,’ while the lowest was achieved by the ‘Red Chief’ cultivar. The vigorous cultivar had better sapling performance on MM106 rootstock than the weaker cultivars.