Pre-determination of survival rate of apple and pear scions after X-ray treatment

Summary

A simple method is described which makes it possible to pre-determine the survival rate of dormant scions of woody crops such as apple and pear after X-ray treatment.

During early spring irradiated scions were kept on water in a warm glasshouse and the buds were left to sprout. It appeared that the relation between X-ray dose and percentage of buds surviving on the scions after 3–4 weeks was similar to the relation between dose and the percentage of irradiated grafts surviving after two growing seasons in the field. In sofar the dose at which 50% survival occurs is presumed to be the most efficient one, the method enables speedy determination of the most effective dose of X-ray treatment.