This study was carried out at Azmar mountains, Sulimaniyah city, Kurdistan region-Iraq, under rained condition during the seasons 2010-2014 for water harvesting through utilizing wild Cherry as a rootstock for production of some common local fruits cultivars (peach , apricot ,haloza zarda) and utilizing at the same time shallow, rocky and eroded soils which comprises more than 20% of the lands of Iraqi Kurdistan region.. The results show that it is possible to graft some common locally fruits

more »

... ltivar known as peach , Haloza zarda and apricot using budding method onto wild cherry rootstock which depend entirely on rainfall with minimum water requirement of 450 mm rainfall. Whereas, locally grown fruits cultivar mentioned above require under normal irrigation system about 700 mm rainfall/year or 7000 mP 3 P water /ha/year. Consequently the grafting results in water harvesting of about 7000 m3 water /ha/year and makes people more interested in using wild cherry root as rootstocks for fruit production which resist severe ecosystems of mountains area in sulaimanyah region consequently at the same time, it helps in expanding the mentioned growing area besides its growing under normal irrigation in plain area of the region.