A wide science project on the use of the japanese apricot as rootstock for peach tree is being developed at Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias - UNESP, Jaboticabal Campus, São Paulo State, Brazil, due, especially, to the promising characteristics for using as canopy vigor reducer and its good fruit quality. Some works in the literature mention the japanese apricot as resistant to the root-knot nematodes, however the information are still scanty. The objective of this work was to study the reaction of japanese apricot clones and peach tree cultivars to Meloidogyne javanica. The experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions. There were 6 treatments (the japanese apricot clones 05, 10 and 15; and Okinawa, Aurora-1 and Dourado-1 peach tree cultivars) and 9 replications. The plants were maintained in ceramic boxes containing a soil-sand mixture (1:1, v/v), previously autoclaved at 121ºC and 1kgf.cm-2 for 2 hours. On the sixtyth day after planting, each plant was inoculated with 3.000 eggs and second stage juvenile of Meloidogyne javanica. A hundred days after inoculation the plants were harvested for evaluation of root fresh matter mass, root gall, egg and juvenile number in a 10 g sample, egg and juvenile number for the whole radicular system and reproduction factor (RF). It was verified that all the japanese apricot clones and peach tree cultivars were resistant to Meloidogyne javanica.
Rootstock; stone fruits; root-knot nematode; Prunus spp.; Meloidogyne spp
