Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
XI. International Symposium on Kiwifruit, Tauranga, Yeni Zelanda, 22 Şubat 2024, cilt.1431, ss.119-126, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
The production of young plants, which are clean in terms of plant health and are the right starting material for true to type, is of great importance for quality production all over the world. It is even more of a challenge for crops which are relatively new in the history of horticulture such as kiwifruit. Kiwifruit cultivation has a history of about 25 years in Albania. During this period, growers tried to achieve the young plants they needed in different ways, but sometimes undesirable situations were encountered. This study has been planned in order to provide healthy material that can be a solution to these situations. In this study, we aimed to help growers/nurseries and encourage them to propagate kiwifruit plants themselves instead of buying uncontrolled, unknown quality and high-priced plant materials in markets. Of course, although there is no large kiwifruit plantation and massive propagation in Albania, it was planned to propagate healthy plants with a good root system for home gardens. The seeds of the ‘Hayward’ cultivar were used in this study because the plants growing from seeds have a strong root system. ‘Hayward Clone 8’ was grafted with two different methods (bud and cleft grafting) onto these seedlings when they germinated and reached sufficient graft thickness in a three-year period (2020, 2021 and 2022). The seedlings obtained from planting kiwifruit seeds in orchards were planted in the open field after one year. After two years from planting in the orchard, kiwifruit plants were grafted. The results were found really encouraging and suitable to suggest growers/nurseries. The success ratio with bud grafting, for the three years’ evaluation, was 78.33%, while for cleft grafting was 58%. While propagation of plant materials by tissue culture is undoubtedly the most appropriate method for large areas, for countries such as Albania, this method can be recommended for small nurseries and home garden owners. Propagation of kiwifruit seedlings using this method is time consuming, but in our opinion, it is more advantageous to lose a few years at the beginning than to have a weak plant during the entire life of the production period.