Evaluation of vegetative and reproductive characteristics of DAT1 a mid-season apple compared to some apple cultivars grafted on different rootstocks

This study has been performed to compare DAT1, a new mid-season apple genotype, with summer apple cultivars including ‘Gala’, ‘Golab-e-Kohanz’, ‘Shafi Abadi’, and ‘Golab-e-Isfahan’ grafted on M9, MM106, and MM111 during two consecutive years in Kamalshahr Research Station. The experiments use a factorial design, arranged in a Random Complete Block Design with 3 replicates. Results show that the impacts of cultivars, rootstocks, and their interactions has been significant (P≤0.01) on growth characteristics, having the highest values in ‘Golab-e-Kohanz’ and ‘Golab-e-Isfahan’ grafted on MM111, with 92 and 91.7 cm respectively, while the lowest value occurs in DAT1, grafted on M9 with 53.7 cm. the highest yield is found in ‘Golab-e-Isfahan’, ‘Golab-e-Kohanz’, and DAT1 grafted on MM106 and MM111 with 22.50, 20.05, and 18.4 kg, respectively. The largest fruits belong to DAT1, being 211.80 gr, and the smallest ones are grown on ‘Golab-e-Isfahan’ and ‘Golab-e-Kohanz’ with 75.50 and 69.55 gr, respectively. Regarding flesh firmness, the hardest and softest fruits turn out to be ‘Gala’ grafted on M9 and DAT1 on MM106, being 5.8 Kg/cm2 and 3.7 Kg/cm2, respectively. The maximum soluble solids (18.5%) has been ‘Gala’ grafted on all three rootstocks and the lowest one (11.5%), ‘Golab-e-Isfahan’ grafted on MM111. The maximum acidity of fruit juice has been found in DAT1 grafted on MM106 with 0.68% and the lowest one in ‘Golab-e-Isfahan’ grafted on MM106 with 022%.