Observations on Rodent Feeding Damage to Pear Germplasm in Cold Storage
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71318/apom.2008.62.1.38Abstract
Fall-dug nursery trees stored in a cold storage were damaged by rodent feeding over the winter of 2004-2005. Damage to pear ( Pyrus communisL.) scion cultivars was confined to the lower trunk region with little damage to the Bartlett seedling rootstocks. Damage ranged from nibbling of some buds to complete girdling and bark removal of a considerable length of the trunk. Position of the tree bundle in the storage appeared to have no effect on severity of damage. An arbitrary 7-point scale was used to rate the severity of damage on 22 cultivars. The least damaged cultivars were ‘Moonglow’, ‘Giffard’ and ‘Butirra Precoce Morettini’, whilst ‘Thornless Seckel’, ‘Conference’ and ‘AC Harrow Gold’ were severely damaged. In late spring 2005, all trees were replanted into nursery rows to allow trees to recover. Only trees with damage ratings in the slight to moderate range showed signs of recovery during the 2005 growing season.
Downloads
Published
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The American Pomological Society and Editors cannot be held responsible for the views and opinions expressed by individual authors of articles published herein. This also applies to any supplemental materials residing on this website that are linked to these articles. The publication of advertisements does not constitute any endorsement of products by the American Pomological Society or Editors.
