a breeding program was initiated in 1990 at davis , calif ., to provide a group of rootstocks with broad and durable resistance to the nematodes found in california vineyards . this program commenced with an evaluation of selections that remained from breeding efforts in the late 1960s and early 1970s . these selections from the late 1960s and early 1970s were previously screened against two root knot nematode species ( meloidogyne incognita acrita and m . arenaria thamsei ), the lesion nematode ( pratylenchus vulnus ), and the dagger nematode ( xiphinema index ). in 1990 , these selections were evaluated for their ability to root and for growth habits such as brushy growth , internode length and the degree of lateral shoot production . in 1993 and 1994 , the best of these selections were crossed to species chosen for their ability to reduce scion vigor or improve the rooting of the progeny . the parentage and species composition of the ‘ 8905 - 05 ’ and other crosses are listed in table 1 . about 5 , 000 progeny were planted in the vineyard and their evaluation for nematode resistance was initiated in 1996 . the first phase of the selection process examined the progeny for their general vigor and horticultural characters such as internode length and the degree of lateral shoot formation . the best 1 , 000 progeny , selected from as many families as possible , were advanced to a rooting assay . in december of 1996 , ten 2 - node dormant cuttings of the best 1 , 000 were tested for their ability to form roots . rootstocks that root well generally graft well , thus this evaluation was a key indicator of their future success as rootstocks . one hundred of the progeny were selected , again with an effort to get a broad representation from the large number of families . the second phase of the selection process involved testing these 100 selections for resistance to m . incognita i3 . this root - knot nematode isolate is capable of feeding on many rootstocks , but does not feed on rootstocks that derive their resistance from v . champinii (‘ freedom ’, ‘ harmony ’, ‘ dog ridge ’ and ‘ ramsey ’). all of the nematode testing in this breeding program utilized potted plants under greenhouse conditions with optimized soils and irrigation techniques to promote nematode feeding . resistance to this isolate of root - knot nematode was evaluated by assaying the number of galls on the roots after inoculation with 1 , 000 j2 larvae ( the free - living infectious stage of this nematode ). resistance was also evaluated by extracting the j2 nematodes in the pots after the root galls were counted . later phases of the root - knot nematode screening evaluated resistance by counting the number of egg masses formed using a technique developed by cousins and walker ( cousins and walker 2001 plant disease 85 : 1052 - 1054 ). there were no root galls on 33 of the 100 selections and the 33 selections were advanced to the next phase of screening . the third phase of the selection process tested the 33 root - knot nematode resistant selections against two aggressive strains of root - knot nematode and against the dagger nematode , x . index . the two aggressive strains were selected from soils from a declining vineyard of ‘ harmony ’ rootstock . root - knot nematodes were extracted from this soil and the larvae were placed onto tomato plants with high susceptibility to root - knot nematodes . two egg masses were collected from these infested plants and j2 larvae from each mass were put on a separate uninfested tomato plant to create new strains from a single egg mass ( root - knot nematodes are parthenogenic ). these new strains were multiplied on tomato and were then used to inoculate potted plants of ‘ harmony ’ rootstock to verify their ability to feed aggressively on this resistant rootstock . these two strains were named harma and harmc . later investigations determined that harma was a strain of m . arenaria while harmc was a strain of m . incognita . the dagger nematodes were collected from several vineyards in the napa valley of california , which were known to have fanleaf degeneration . the 33 selections were then inoculated with each of the three nematode strains independently . the root - knot nematode screens used 1 , 000 j2 larvae to inoculate plants growing in 1 , 000 cm 3 plastic pots with a coarse sand / clay loam soil mix . the dagger nematode screens were done in the same pots and soils , but used 200 adult x . index as the inoculum . fourteen selections did not produce egg masses when inoculated with the three root - knot nematode strains nor did they produce root tip galls after inoculation with x . index ( table 2 ). in the fourth phase , the 14 selections were subjected to a series of tests . the first was a combined inoculum of all four nematodes at once to determine the impact of simultaneous nematode feeding on resistance ( table 3 ). they were also tested against the four nematodes over a range of temperatures , 24 , 27 , 30 and 32 ° c . there was some erosion of resistance to harma ( the most aggressive strain of root - knot nematode ) at this temperature , but 6 of the selections performed very well ( table 4 ). root - knot nematode resistance is known to fail at about 28 ° c . in a wide range of species including tomato , pepper and plum . the 14 selections were also evaluated for resistance to lesion ( pratylenchus vulnus ), citrus ( tylenchulus semipenetrans ) and ring ( mesocriconema xenoplax ) nematodes ( table 3 ). from this series of tests a number of six rootstock selections were made , including ‘ 9365 - 85 ’. a summary of the ‘ 9365 - 85 ’ characteristics is presented below . grape phylloxera are capable of feeding and producing galls ( nodosities ) on the young roots of virtually all grape rootstocks and species . in order to gauge the phylloxera hosting ability of the final six selections , they were tested for the ability to support phylloxera on nodosities and compared to a set of commercial rootstocks . three sets of young root pieces from each selection were inoculated with 10 phylloxera eggs collected from ‘ 101 - 14 mgt ’ rootstock roots . over a 21 - day period , the number of eggs and juveniles that were produced were summed and divided by 10 ( the original inoculum ) to produce the average rate of increase . table 5 presents these results for the six selections . nodosity galling on young roots does not appear to damage grapevines , only feeding and galling on mature roots ( tuberosities ) leads to vine death . the high rate of phylloxera feeding , galling and reproduction on ‘ 101 - 14 mgt ’ ( 7 . 98 average rate of increase ) has been observed in past tests . most of the values were very low , although this ‘ 101 - 14 mgt ’ strains is well adapted to ‘ 9407 - 14 ’. three of the selections were very resistant : ‘ 8909 - 05 ’, ‘ 9363 - 16 ’, and ‘ 9449 - 27 ’. the low values for axr # 1 demonstrate that the results of this test do not reflect field level or tuberosity level feeding and damage , and that phylloxera adapt independently to rootstock hosts . it will take years to determine which sites each of these rootstock selections are best suited to , but they have unparalleled levels of resistance to nematodes and should excel in sites with single and mixed nematode species infestations . four of the selections (‘ 9365 - 43 ’, ‘ 9365 - 85 ’, ‘ 9407 - 14 ’ and ‘ 9449 - 27 ’) were grafted to ‘ fiesta seedless ’ and planted in a ‘ fresno ’ rootstock trial in 2004 . that year two of these selections (‘ 9365 - 43 ’ and ‘ 9365 - 85 ’) were also included in a ‘ chardonnay ’ rootstock trial in santa maria , calif . the six rootstock selections in large pots using soils with nematode pressure from root - knot , lesion , ring and xiphinema americanum , is known to be severe and chronic . this test was conducted to evaluate these selections under “ field conditions ” using infested soil without added inoculations . all of the selections performed very well against root - knot nematodes ( table 6 ) and two , ‘ 9407 - 14 ’, and ‘ 8909 - 05 ’, also performed very well against ring nematode ( fig1 ). each of the selections was repeatedly asexually reproduced to provide testing materials for nematode resistance evaluations . the cuttings were taken from the original seedling vine planted in davis , calif . on jun . 7 , 2002 the original seedlings were asexually reproduced to provide more cuttings for greenhouse and eventual field testing . the variety ‘ 9365 - 85 ’ was first asexually reproduced for distribution in davis , calif . from woody and herbaceous cuttings . rootstock ‘ 9365 - 85 ’ is a staminate flowered vine with leaves that appear more like v . riparia with longer teeth , more prominent lobing , and thinner more puckered texture . its resistance to root - knot and dagger nematodes in the combined testing was very good , and it resists citrus and lesion nematode , but is susceptible to ring nematode ( table 3 ). the resistance of ‘ 9365 - 85 ’ to m . arenaria harma was the most severely impacted by higher temperatures compared with the other five selections , although it is not statistically different from ‘ 9365 - 43 ’ and ‘ 9363 - 16 ’ ( table 4 ). ‘ 9365 - 85 ’ is an excellent mother vine with long canes , good internode lengths and few lateral shoots . preliminary propagation results indicate it has moderately deep rooting angles . shoot tips .— the variety has shoot tips which are e enclosed in expanding leaves , typical and observed color - green ( 5gy ⅚ ), and sparsely covered with arachnose tomentum . young leaves .— the variety has young leaves with typical and observed color green ( 5gy ⅚ ), and typical and observed shape - three lobed glabrous leaves with fine arachnose tomentum and relatively long sharply pointed teeth . mature leaves .— the variety has a typical and observed size — medium sized ( 8 . 7 × 11 cm ), typical and observed upper surface color - dark green upper ( 5gy 4 / 4 ) and typical and observed lower surface color - dark green ( 5gy 5 / 4 ), slightly 3 - lobed , broad cuneiform - shaped leaves with medium - sized angular to convex teeth , and medium - sized petioles . the upper surface is glabrous , broadly rugose with some indented puckering near the petiole . the lower surface has scattered arachnose tomentum , fine bristles along the main vines and small tufted bristles ( domatia ) at the intersection of the main veins . the petiolar sinus is a narrow u to lyre shape . petioles .— typical and observed length 4 to 5 cm , typical and observed diameter — 3 to 4 mm , and color is similar to the upper leaf surface ( 5gy 4 / 4 ). canes .— typical and observed color .— dark brown ( 5yr ⅝ ), typical and observed internodes length — 15 to 20 cm , and relatively limited lateral development , nodes have short pointed buds . canes are oval in cross - section , have thin diaphragms and medium sized pith . flowers .— typical and observed flowers are staminate and do not produce berries .
rootstock ‘ 9365 - 85 ’ is a cross of ‘ l514 - 10 ’ )× v . champinii ‘ c9038 ’. this invention relates to a new and distinct variety of grapevine rootstock plant with resistance to a broad array of soil - borne nematodes including root - knot , dagger , lesion and citrus nematodes . the variety is moderately susceptible to ring nematode , but has strong resistance to grape phylloxera .