PERFORMANCE OF ‘TUXPAN VALENCIA’ SWEET ORANGE GRAFTED ONTO 14 ROOTSTOCKS IN NORTHERN BAHIA, BRAZIL

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the State of Bahia, Brazil, the citrus industry is located on the north coast with the prevalence of the combination ‘Pera’ sweet orange on ‘Rangpur’ lime. Scion-rootstock diversification may contribute to the increase of yield and the extension of harvest season, as long as to decrease the risk associated to abiotic and biotic stresses. Therefore, the performance of ‘Tuxpan Valencia’ sweet orange grafted onto 14 rootstocks was evaluated in Rio Real – BA. Planting was performed in 2006 under rainfed cultivation on cohesive ultisol and tree spacing of 6.0 m x 4.0 m. Tree size, yield and fruit quality were evaluated in the period of 2010-2014, in addition to tree survival at nine years old and drought tolerance in the field based on leaf wilting. In the evaluated conditions, ‘Sunki Tropical’ and ‘Sunki Maravilha’ mandarins led to the highest scion canopy volume. The highest accumulated yield in five harvests was recorded on ‘Santa Cruz Rangpur’ lime, ‘Volkamer’ lemon, ‘Riverside’ and ‘Indio’ citrandarins, ‘Sunki Tropical’ mandarin and the hybrid TSKC x (LCR x TR) – 001. ‘Riverside’ and TSKFL x CTSW – 049 induced higher yield efficiency on the canopy. The rootstocks did not influence the tree survival nine years after planting except for lower survival of TSKFL x CTSW – 049. Drought tolerance was not affected either. Regarding to the fruit quality of ‘Tuxpan Valencia’, the rootstocks influenced the juice content, soluble solids and technological index with the citrandarins, ‘Santa Cruz Rangpur’ lime, ‘Volkamer’ lemon and ‘Sunki Tropical’ mandarin presenting higher performance in general.