Abstract

This study was carried out in Kocaköy and Hani counties of Diyarbakir province in Southeast Anatolia Region of Turkey during years 2006 and 2007. The aim of the research was to select and evaluate almond types which had good quality and late flowering. Although these populations have a special importance with respect to almond genetic resources, no studies have been made about almond in this area up to now. Therefore, this research had a great important. For this purpose, natural almond populations of these counties were surveyed and 130 types which had open late flowering according to the other almond types were labelled and evaluated for breeding objectives. At the end of this study, 15 promising types (21-HA-1, 21-HA-8, 21-HA-13, 21-HA-31, 21-HA-45, 21-HA-48, 21-KO-2, 21-KO-16, 21-KO-18, 21-KO-21, 21-KO-34, 21-KO-42, 21-KO-44, 21-KO-46 and 21-KO-49) having superior characteristics were selected. In this study, it was determined that the fruit weight with shell, fruit length with shell, fruit width with shell, kernel weight, kernel length, kernel width, widthness index, thickness index, kernel ratio, double kernel ratio, twin kernel ratio and sound kernel ratio ranged from 2.14 - 1.15 g, 28.51 - 23.94 mm, 19.13 - 15.03 mm, 1.25 - 0.69 g, 21.99 - 18.22 mm, 11.60 - 10.15 mm, 57.19 - 51.93, 47.55 - 36.08, 62.81 - 37.43%, 0.00%, 0.00% and 100%, respectively. In addition, It was determined that total points according to flowering and quality changed from 790-646 and 782-638, respectively.

Key words: Almond, selection, fruit characteristics, late flowering.