SWEET ORANGE CLONES SUITABLE FOR THE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE STATE OF ACRE, BRAZIL

Considering that the genetic improvement of orange trees usingdifferent scion-rootstock combinations requires extensive research, we aimed to evaluate the agronomic performance and fruit quality of32 native clones of sweet orange grafted onto ‘Cravo’lime and grown on for eight years. The cultivar ‘Aquiri’ orange was employed as control since it is currently recommended by Embrapa for cultivation in Acre. Grafted treeswere evaluated with respect toproductivity and number of fruits per plant, while fruit quality was assessed in terms of mass, dimensions, juice content, total soluble solids (TSS) and titratable total acidity (TTA). Of the 32 clones investigated, eight exhibited very high productivities and two were considered elite clones since they exhibited productivity values (49.29 and 59.91 t ha-1) and numbers of fruits per plant (2048 and 1970.67) that exceeded those of the control ‘Aquiri’(37.78 t ha-1 and 1263 fruits per plant). Mass, dimensions and juice content of the fruits were similar for all of the clones and the control, but nine clones showed superior values for TSS and TTA. Our findings warrant further research on combinations of these clones with alternative rootstocks to establish the most productive pairs that generate the highest quality fruits.