Improvement of Late Blooming Drying Apricot Varieties by Crossbreeding

Abstract

One of the main problems of apricot cultivation in Turkey Malatya province refers to late spring frosts. In order to overcome this problem a new drying apricot breeding programme has been developed in Malatya Fruit Research Institute from 1993 to 2003. Four local dried apricot varieties (Hacihaliloglu Cataloglu Kabaasi Hasanbey) two foreign varieties (Luizet and P. de Colomer) and late blooming varieties were pollinated reciprocally. Six hundred eighteen F-1 hybrids obtained from different combinations were investigated for their phenological and pomological characteristics. At the end of the evaluation process none of the hybrids was in line with expectations.