INHERITANCE STUDIES WITH COLUMNAR TYPE TREES

The progenies of four crosses, ‘Elise’ x ‘McIntosh Wijcik’, ‘Golden Delicious’ x ‘McIntosh Wijcik’, ‘Elise’ x SA163-17 and ‘Golden Delicious’ x SA163-17, were raised both in a nursery for 2 years and in a greenhouse for 1 or 2 years.
The results showed that, especially for progenies originating from the columnar cultivar ‘McIntosh Wijcik’, there was a significant deficiency of columnar type trees.
Nevertheless, it was concluded that the columnar growth habit is controlled by one dominant gene.
It was also concluded that it is likely that a modifying gene or genes are involved.
Selection for columnar growth habit is reliable at the end of the second growing season; however, it is possible to select as early as 2 to 3 weeks after germination, although a fair number of mis-classified plants occur then.
Columnar type trees were not more precocious than normal type trees, whether raised in the nursery or in the greenhouse for 1 or 2 years.
Indeed, in the nursery the juvenile period of normal trees was significantly shorter than that of columnar trees.

Eucarpia Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

B. Meulenbroek, J. Verhaegh, J. Janse

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.484.45