Evaluation and commercialisation of new citrus rootstocks (CT13042)

What was it all about?

Running from 2014 to 2018, this investment evaluated the performance of new rootstocks for the Australian citrus industry, with a focus on improving the yield and quality of both fresh and processing fruit, boosting tree health by improving tolerance to stresses, and looking at the modification of tree architecture.

Building on earlier rootstock evaluation work, it saw the release of six new, high-performance rootstocks – the first release in more than two decades for the industry. Information on these rootstocks from China (Zao Yang, Tanghe, Ghana, Donghai, Anjiang hongju and Caoshi xiangju) is available on the NSW DPI website here. An overview was also provided on p31 of the winter 2017 edition of Australian Citrus News.

Under the project, these six new rootstocks were put into grower field trials, planted in early 2017 across 12 orchards in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. Their evaluation is being carried on through a subsequent levy project, which will also continue CT13042’s other trials, which included:

• Dwarfing citrus rootstock trials, established at the evaluation program’s Dareton field site in New South Wales during September 2017
  
  
• A salt tolerance rootstock trial in Western Australia
  
  
• Trials involving processing oranges in the Riverina region of New South Wales.