Rootstocks of Stone Fruit Crops

Among temperate fruits, stone fruits fall on the second position after pome fruits in case of area and production, but as they come early in the season (summer) and have high nutritive value in terms of high vitamins A and C, fibre and potassium and very low fat, calories and sugar, making them beneficial in weight management, they favour a great part of human diet. Area and production of stone fruits in the country has been limited due to many reasons, viz. nematode problems, disease and viruses, insect problem, edaphic reasons and incompatibility among rootstock and scion cultivars. Absences of suitable and compatible rootstocks restrict or limit the expansion in area and production of stone fruits. Still most of the stone fruits are grafted/budded on seedling rootstocks in the country which is also the main reason of low production as seedling rootstock suffers from most of the abovementioned problems. During last three to four decades, a great progress has been done in the development of clonal rootstock in Prunus species, and to date various clonal rootstocks have been developed in different countries of the world which offered a great potential for cultivation in respect to production and productivity.