Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

This study was conducted on local Tahar apples, which are under extinction, grown in Ürgüp District of Nevşehir Province of Turkey between 2010-2013 in order to evalute their potantial as a dwarfing rootstock for cultivated apples. Since dwarf growing Tahar apple trees are propagated by vegetative means, the population in the region was surveyed in order to find morphologically different genotypes, if possible. Seventeen putative different genotypes were labeled. Several morphological charactersitics of plants such as plant vigor, growth habit, ramification degree, internode lenght and root suckering status were determined.  The data collected from pro-selected 17 genotypes were evaluated with a Weighted Rankit Method with an emphasis to the requirement of dwarfing rootstock.

Three individuals with highest scores 50TE001, 50TE002 and 50TE012 were selected out of seventeen genotypes. Since there were very limited shoots on the pre-selected 17 genotypes, their budsticks were collected and budded on apple seedlings in the nursery to increase the shoot numbers for propagation experiments.The propagation ease of Tahar apples by green, soft wood and hard wood cuttings were investigated. The rooting ability of pre-selected genotypes was found to be very low or none; however, propagation by stoolbed was a success. On these plants, a detailed morphological characterisation according to UPOV criteria was performed. Also, molecular analysis (AFLP) were done in order to determine the genetic relativeness. The pre-selected genotypes fell into four phylogenetical groups. These genotypes were found to be genetically partly close to M.9. Because there were distinct differences among the individuals, the selected three Tahar apple genotypes 50TE001, 50TE002 and 50TE012 were considered as promising materials for developing a new dwarf apple rootstocks.