Influence of pollinizers on fruit quality characteristics in hazelnut cultivar ‘Tonda Francescana^®’

In central Italy, a study was carried out to investigate six cultivars (‘Barcelona’, ‘Camponica’, ‘Nocchione’, ‘Tonda di Giffoni’, ‘Tonda Gentile delle Langhe’ and ‘Segorbe’) as potential pollinizers for the new hazelnut cultivar ‘Tonda Francescana^®’ and to evaluate how these could influence the commercial and qualitative characteristics of the fruits.
Significant differences were found among the cross-pollinations in terms of fruit set, frequency of blank nuts, kernel percentage, and other nut and kernel quality traits. ‘Barcelona’ and ‘Camponica’ pollen gave small fruits with a high percentage of blank-nuts. ‘Nocchione’ and ‘Tonda di Giffoni’ had the highest fruit-set.
However, the cross-pollination ‘Tonda Francescana^®’ × ‘Tonda Giffoni’ reported the lowest values of total fat.
Indeed, the cross-pollination ‘Tonda Francescana^®’ × ‘Nocchione’ gave the best results – high final fruit set, kernel percentage and nut and kernel size, with a low frequency of blank nuts.
Finally, the results obtained from this first study seem to indicate that the new cultivar ‘Tonda Francescana^®’ has the alleles S₂₀S₂₃ or S₁₀S₂₃, to be confirmed in future research studies.
The identification of pollinizers whose use gives high fruit set, a low frequency of blank nuts, and high commercial parameters of the kernels, is crucial to nurseries and growers as they choose cultivars pollinizers when designing orchards.

X International Congress on Hazelnut

D. Farinelli, C. Bernacchia, E. Brugnoli, S. Portarena, C. Zadra

fruit set, cross-pollination, xenia, blank nut, double nut, Corylus avellana L

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2023.1379.28