Vol. 70 No: 5

Title:
The Use of Unrooted Cuttings for Studying the Effects of Chilling in Kiwifruit (Actinidia Deliciosa)

Authors:
C.JILL STANLEY, H.G. MCPHERSON and JULIE A. PLUMMER

pp: 749-756

Abstract:
Two-node unrooted cuttings were kept alongside mature container-grown vines of kiwifruit while they were subjected to a range of temperature treatments under controlled conditions. The vines were held at mean temperatures of 7°C, 10°C and 13°C for one, two, three and four months before being transferred to "forcing" temperatures of 16°C mean. Comparisons were made between the response of the buds on two-node cuttings and the two distal buds of the container-grown vines. The aim was to determine if results from two-node cuttings are representative of the behaviour of entire vines. The trends for the proportion of bud break and the day of bud break, between different temperatures and between different durations of chilling, were similar for unrooted cuttings and container-grown vines. However, some of the responses to individual treatments were quite different. The proportion of bud break differed by from 3% to 34% and the day of bud break from 2 to 15 d. The trends in flowering showed large differences between the two systems. The container-grown vines showed a consistent increase in flower numbers per winter bud with decreasing temperature whereas the two-node cuttings varied. The number of flowers per winter bud differed between individual treatments by from 0 to 1.6. These differences represent a large portion of the full range seen in the field. We conclude that unrooted cuttings with few nodes should only be used with caution for testing vegetative responses to chilling. They are not satisfactory for testing the responses of flowering.

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