Penn State | CAS | Research and Graduate Education | Research & Extension Centers | Lake Erie Regional Grape Reasearch Center | Horticulture You are Here

Robert M. Crassweller, J. Griggs and D. Smith

Penn State has been a member in the national tree fruit rootstock research project (NC-140) since its beginning in 1976. This is a cooperative project involving over 25 states in this country, 4 provinces in Canada and two sites in Mexico to evaluate new rootstocks for tree fruits.

In recent years a number of new dwarfing rootstocks for cherries have been developed in Europe. Many of these rootstocks have never been tested in North America. Therefore in 1998 as part of the national project a trial was established at the Grape Research Station in North East. The scion variety chosen was the sweet cherry Hedelfingen. Fifteen different rootstocks along with three different pollinizers were planted in April of 1998. The reason this site was chosen was because Erie county has traditionally been a leading sweet cherry producing county in the state. The site at the Grape Lab is an ideal site to test these rootstocks.

The trial will be maintained for at least 10 years. During that time yields and tree growth will be monitored. The goal of the project is to determine if there is a suitable rootstock for sweet cherries that can induce earlier cropping, control tree size to make harvest easier and to increase yields.

The project was supported in part by funds provided by the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania.

Rootstocks planted:

	GI 148-1 (Gisela 6)
	GI 148-2 (Gisela 5)
	GI 148-8 (Gisela 7)
	GI 195-20
	GI 209-1
	Edabriz
	Avium
	Weiroot 10
	Weiroot 13
	Weiroot 158
	Mahaleb
	Weiroot 53
	Weiroot 72
	GI 473-10
	Blackgold/Mazzard (pollinizers)
	Blackgold/Mahaleb (pollinizers)
	Vandalay (pollinizers)
	P.50