Plant Architecture

Dwarfing

Many tree fruit crops have dwarfing rootstocks that allow for easier orchard management and harvesting. This allows for orchard designs like fruiting walls, and alternative plant training shapes. We are interested in creating dwarfing or rootstocks with reduced vigor to produce rootstock/scion combinations that would give growers alternative options of orchard management.

Below is a chart showing the wide range of apple rootstocks where growers have a wide range of rootstocks that can provide choices as to tree size. The goal would be to see if this can be done in peach by producing a series of rootstocks that provide similar range of tree sizes.