Morphological characterization of cherry rootstock candidates selected from Samsun Province in Turkey

Abstract

Sweet cherry and sour cherry production in Turkey occupies an important place in worldwide production and is still of considerable importance in terms of providing further fruit species and gene resources. In this study, 88 sweet cherry, 16 sour cherry, and 9 mahaleb types displaying potential for cultivar rootstocks were selected from wild cherry populations in Samsun Province of the Central Black Sea Region in Turkey. The morphologic characteristics of the studied genotypes were compared with the standard clone rootstocks PHL-A, MaxMa 14, Montmorency, Weiroot 158, Gisela 5, Gisela 6, and SL 64. A total of 22 morphological and phenotypic characteristics were evaluated in the selected genotypes and clonal rootstocks. The obtained data were analyzed by using principal component analysis, and 7 principal component (PC) axes accounted for 70.37% of the total cumulative variation. The first PC axis, which accounted for 22.4% of the total variation, was represented by leaf blade length, leaf blade width, petiole length, ratio of 1-year-old shoot internodes length, and 1-year-old shoot branching, while the second PC axis, which accounted for 13.55% of the variation, was represented by leaf blade ratio of length to width, 1-year-old shoot length, 1-year-old shoot thickness, and leaf blade shape. Average linkage cluster analysis was also performed, and 7 main clusters were identified. According to the diversity analysis of coefficients, the C 0032 and C 0094 genotypes were identified as being very similar, while the C 0002 and S 0012 genotypes were determined as the most distant genotypes in terms of morphology. In conclusion, the genotypes evaluated in this study may be useful for rootstock breeding programs.