Inheritance of the growth habit of apricot hybrids
Marieta Nesheva
Fruit Growing Institute - Plovdiv, 12 Ostromila Str., Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Резюме
Tree architecture is controlled by training systems that require labour-intensive
cutting operations and effort. The reduced tree size and small canopy make all agro
technical procedures easier and are objectives in all fruit species breeding programs.
The aim of our study was to trace the inheritance of the main growth characteristics:
tree habit, degree of branching, internode length, one-year-old shoot color, length
and thickness in the Lito x Silistrenska ranna hybrid family.
A very small part of the hybrids (6%) resemble the upright tree habit of the
parental cultivar ‘Lito’. More than half of the studied progeny (56%) had spreading
tree habit like the parental cultivar ‘Silistrenska ranna’. In the progeny the
biggest was the group of hybrids with degree of branching between 50o and 70o.
The internode length is segregating in the progeny. In the experimental years the
number of hybrids with shorter internodes than Lito was the highest. The hybrids
growth was intense and the length of their one-year-old shoots was medium to long with medium thickness. The one-year-old shoot color was strongly variable by the
temperatures. Since the predominance of the spreading tree habit, wide angle of
branching and vigorous growth of the hybrids, with this parental combination the
possibility of obtaining a genotype with reduced growth habit is very small.
