Effect of Leaf Nutrient Uptake on Fruit Quality and Shelf Life of Quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) Cultivars Grafted on Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) Rootstock

Rootstocks are very important for the production of a healthy and fruitful product, and without having well-matched rootstocks with the physical and chemical conditions of the soil as well as the weather conditions; one cannot hope to have productive orchards. The objective of this research is to find the efficiency of leaf nutrient uptake on fruit quality and shelf life (brown spot) in quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) cultivars (Behta,Vidoja and Isfahan) and promising genotypes ("KVD2", "NB2") grafted on hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) and quince seedling (Cydonia oblonga) rootstocks grown in heavy calcareous soil. This study suggests that, higher mineral nutrient uptake of studied cultivars or genotypes favored by hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) rootstocks, makes them suitable for heavy and calcareous soils. ‘KVD2’/hawthorn combination in our experiment demonstrated higher mineral nutrient uptake than other studied combinations in heavy (56% silt; 14% loam) and calcareous soils (28% calcium carbonate equivalent in soil) with slight saline (2.08%) and pH of 7.67. None of the studied cultivar/rootstock combinations were found to have adequate nutrient ratios in fruit that could reduce the risk of brown spot and increase storage capacity in the cold storage.