Introduction

The Vineland (‘V.’) series of apple rootstocks originated as open-pollinated hybrids of ‘Kerr’ crabapples and ‘M.9' rootstock that Dr. Aleck Hutchinson selected at the Horticultural Experiment Station, Vineland Station in 1958. The ‘Kerr’ apple crab was chosen as the maternal parent because of its exceptional winter hardiness, excellent rooting ability, and resistance to fireblight. A total of seven selections (‘V.1'-‘V.7') were made based on their desirable characteristics including dwarf growth habit, cold-hardiness, ease of propagation, and disease and insect resistance. Initial experiments revealed after eight years of testing that ‘V.3' was found to be in the ‘M.9' size class, ‘V.1’ and ‘V.2' in the ‘M.26' size class, and ‘V.4' and ‘V.7' in the ‘M.7' size class. ‘V.5 and V.6’ currently remain untested. It was also observed that the Vineland rootstocks were less susceptible to fireblight than other commercially available rootstocks such as M.26.

North American Testing of the Vineland Rootstocks

NA = not available (rootstock has not been tested)

In 1994 the USDA NC-140 Technical Committee initiated testing of more than seventeen new and advanced rootstocks in over 25 locations throughout Canada and the USA; the scion cultivar is ‘Royal Gala’. Three of the V. rootstocks included in this test (‘V.1', ‘V.2', and ‘V.3') has enabled an objective evaluation of their performance in twenty-five contrasting growing conditions in North America and against the industry standard rootstocks ‘M.26' and ‘M.9 EMLA’. Table 1 summarizes the various characteristics and availability of the Vineland rootstocks. 

Table 2 indicates the performance results of several of the Vineland rootstocks after seven years of testing in Simcoe. Figure 1 shows the vigour and yield potential of several of the Vineland rootstocks, average across three scion cultivars. Subsequent tests on the Vineland rootstocks have been conducted in Simcoe and the Canadian Prairies since then, and currently an on-going experiment is investigating the performance of ‘V.1’ and ‘V.3’ (as well as several other new and commercial standards) with the scions cultivars ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Royal Gala’, and ‘Shizuka.’ In the experiment with ‘Shizuka’ as the scion cultivar (Table 3) for example, ‘V.3’ and ‘V.1’ have been more dwarfing than M.9 EMLA and M.26 EMLA, respectively. ‘V.1’ has had the highest cumulative yields while both the V.1 and V.3 have had high yield efficiencies. Rootstocks have not influenced fruit size.

^y rootstocks arranged in order of increasing vigour (tcsa)
^z ns, **, ***, indicates not significant, and significant differences at P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively

Link to Data Equivalent Chart

Summary

Significant industry interest in the V. rootstocks has been the impetus to objectively assess their horticultural attributes. Their determination of precocity, productivity, vigour, cultivar interactions, cold hardiness, fireblight susceptibility, propensity to sucker, and tree habit are being determined. Commercial development of the rootstocks is also underway jointly by the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural affairs. While ‘V.1', and ‘V.3' are available commercially, more information is required to determine the suitability of commercializing ‘V.5', ‘V.6', and ‘V.7'. ‘V.2” was commercially released but proved difficult to propagate in the nursery. Since ‘V.4’ provides limited size control, it will likely not be commercialized in North America.

It is important to emphasise that results of the 1994 NC140 research indicate that rootstocks do not perform similarly at all sites. For this reason, how well the ‘V.’ rootstock will be adapted to individual grower sites and management practices depends on the local growing conditions including soil texture and fertility, hardiness zone, predisposition to replant disease and fireblight, and rootstock-scion interactions. Further information about the Vineland rootstocks is available through the author or through Dr. Stephen Bowley, Office of Research, University of Guelph.

^z rootstocks arranged in order of increasing vigour (tcsa)

Selected References

Ferree, D.C., P.M. Hirst, J.C. Schmid, and P.E. Dotson. 1995. Performance of Three Apple Cultivar with 22 Dwarfing Rootstocks During 8 Seasons in Ohio. Fruit Varieties Journal 49(3):171-178.

Elfving, D.C., I. Schecter, and A. Hutchinson. 1993. The History of the Vineland (V.) Apple Rootstocks. Fruit Varieties Journal 47(1):52-58.

Marini, R.P., B.H. Barritt, G.R. Brown, J. A. Cline, W.P. Cowgill, Jr., R.M. Crassweller, P.A. Domoto, D.C. Ferree. J. Garner, G.M. Greene, C. Hampson, P. Hirst, M. M. Kushad, J. Masabni, E. Mielke, C.A. Mullins, M. Parker, R.L. Perry, J.P. Prive, G.L. Reighard, T. Robinson, C.R. Rom, T. Roper, J.R. Schupp, E. Stover, R. Unrath. 2006. Performance of ‘Gala’ apple on four semi-dwarf rootstocks: A ten year summary of the 1994 NC-140 semi-dwarf rootstock trial. Journal of the American Pomological Society 60(2):58-68.

Marini, R.P., B.H. Barritt, G.R. Brown, J. A. Cline, W.P. Cowgill, Jr., R.M. Crassweller, P.A. Domoto, D.C. Ferree. J. Garner, G.M. Greene, C. Hampson, P. Hirst, M. M. Kushad, J. Masabni, E. Mielke, C.A. Mullins, M. Parker, R.L. Perry, J.P. Prive, G.L. Reighard, T. Robinson, C.R. Rom, T. Roper, J.R. Schupp, E. Stover, R. Unrath. 2006. Performance of ‘Gala’ apple on 18 dwarf rootstocks: A ten year summary of the 1994 NC-140 semi-dwarf rootstock trial. Journal of the American Pomological Society 60(2):69-83.