The Research Institute for Fruitgrowing and Ornamentals has worked for more than half a century on stone fruit breeding in Hungary. One of its important tasks is the breeding of sweet and sour cherry scion cultivars. In connexion with this breeding the Institute also looks for promising cherry rootstocks. An evaluation trial of these was planted in 1997. Eight rootstocks, Weiroot 13, Weiroot 53, Weiroot 72, Weiroot 154, Weiroot 158, P-HL-A, GiSelA 5 and Cerasus (Prunus) avium C. 2493 (bred by professor Nyujto at the Reseach Institute for Fruitgrowing in Cegled) were chosen with Cerasus (Prunus) mahaleb 'Cema' ('C 500', bred in Cegled) as control. Cerasus (Prunus) avium 'F 12/1' grew 10% stronger than Cerasus (Prunus) mahaleb 'Cema'. 'Germersdorfi Y, 'Linda' and 'Katalin' sweet cherries cultivars and the sour cherry cv. 'IV-2/152' (Piramis) were grafted on the rootstocks. The trial design consisted of 3 trees per treatment in 2 replications. This trial was set up at two distinct locations; in South-Hungary at Zakanyszek (near Szeged) and at Erd Elvira major, in the experimental field of the Institute. Both trails were irrigated. The preliminary observations on vegetative growth show significant differences. The weakest vegetative growth was recorded on Weiroot 72 and GiSeIA 5. The highest yield was recorded on trees grafted on GiSeIA 5. The fruit diameter was homogenous among the sweet cherry cultivars except with the Linda/GiSeIA 5 combination, where oversetting occurred, giving reduced fruit sizes. Weiroot 53, Weiroot 72, Weiroot 158 and GiSeIA 5 showed the best yields per tree volume ratio.
