Influence of clonal rootstocks on fruit quality of exotic apple varieties under ambient storage conditions

Clonal rootstocks have been used by the fruit growers in scientifically advanced countries for better management and quality fruit production. Investigation was carried out to study the effect of clonal rootstocks on storage behavior on two exotic apple (Vance Delicious and Silver Spur) varieties grafted on three clonal rootstocks (M-9, M-4, MM-106) planted in the experimental orchard of Division of Fruit Science, SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar campus, Srinagar. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications having two plants in each replication. Thirty fruits from each cultivar were stored under ambient conditions for 90 days and observations on quality parameters were taken at 15 days intervals. Results revealed that trees on dwarfing rootstock M-9 stood best in terms of minimum physiological loss in weight, spoilage, and acidity whereas maximum TSS and fruit firmness were recorded in semi-dwarfing rootstock MM-106. Among cultivars, Silver Spur registered a minimum physiological loss in weight, spoilage, acidity and maximum total soluble solids and fruit firmness as compared to Vance Delicious. From the present study, it was concluded that under ambient conditions fruits of Silver Spur grafted on M-9 clonal rootstock performed best.