Articles
‘Florida’ and ‘Alaska’: two new soft-shelled self-compatible almond cultivars from CEBAS-CSIC
Article number
1406_4
Pages
31 – 34
Language
English
Abstract
The hard shell of almond has been always an important characteristic in Mediterranean cultivars due to the protection that shell provides to the kernel inside against insects, birds or rodents.
Furthermore, a hard shell allows for storage of in-shell almonds for a longer time.
Despite that the benefits of a hard shell, the main almond producing countries (USA and Australia) cultivate soft-shelled almonds.
The Almond Breeding Program of CEBAS-CSIC has been always focused on the release of late-flowering, self-compatible, hard-shelled cultivars.
However, over the years some outstanding soft-shelled seedlings were selected and studied.
Among them, we selected ‘Florida’ and ‘Alaska’ almonds as elite cultivars due to their qualities of self-compatiblility, high productivity, soft-shelled nuts, and high quality kernels.
While ‘Florida’ is suited for warm areas and is an early flowering cultivar like the commercially popular ‘Nonpareil’, ‘Alaska’ is extra-late flowering (‘Nonpareil’ + 19 days) and is recommended cold areas.
In this work, we present the characteristics of these new cultivars.
Furthermore, a hard shell allows for storage of in-shell almonds for a longer time.
Despite that the benefits of a hard shell, the main almond producing countries (USA and Australia) cultivate soft-shelled almonds.
The Almond Breeding Program of CEBAS-CSIC has been always focused on the release of late-flowering, self-compatible, hard-shelled cultivars.
However, over the years some outstanding soft-shelled seedlings were selected and studied.
Among them, we selected ‘Florida’ and ‘Alaska’ almonds as elite cultivars due to their qualities of self-compatiblility, high productivity, soft-shelled nuts, and high quality kernels.
While ‘Florida’ is suited for warm areas and is an early flowering cultivar like the commercially popular ‘Nonpareil’, ‘Alaska’ is extra-late flowering (‘Nonpareil’ + 19 days) and is recommended cold areas.
In this work, we present the characteristics of these new cultivars.
Authors
F. Dicenta, T. Cremades, J. López-Alcolea, M. Rubio, P.J. Martínez-García, R. Sánchez-Pérez, P. Martínez-Gómez, J. Egea
Keywords
Prunus dulcis, breeding program, flowering time
Groups involved
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