[Effects of different interstocks on the growth, yield, and fruit quality of Hanfu apple]

A field experiment was conducted using Hanfu apple grafted on 10 dwarfing interstocks to evaluate plant growth, yield, and fruit quality of different apple-interstock combinations in Hulu-dao, Liaoning Province, in order to select the most suitable apple-interstock combinations in the study area. The results showed that tree vigor, yield, and fruit quality were largely affected by the interstocks. Among the interstocks evaluated here, plant height, branch numbers, leaf fresh weight, branch fresh weight, root fresh weight, total root volume, average root diameter and total root tip numbers were the largest on GM256, while the highest trunk diameter, branch length, total root length and total root surface area were observed on CX5, the highest fruit firmness, soluble solids and soluble sugar contents were observed on M26, and the highest fruit vertical diameter, transverse diameter and single fruit weight were observed on GM256. The fuzzy evaluation results showed that the comprehensive character scores decreased in order of GM256, CX5, B9, JM7, CG80, Liaozhen 2, M26, Qingzhen 3, SH38 and MD001. Our results indicated that interstock GM256 and CX5 was better for the cold climate region.