A COMPARISON OF APPLE AND PEAR SEEDLINGS WITH REFERENCE TO THE JUVENILE PERIOD – II. MODE OF INHERITANCE

Analysis of two incomplete half-diallel schemes of crosses, involving 22 apple and 33 pear progenies with 2 500 and 5 400 seedlings respectively, showed a highly significant general combining ability (GCA) and an insignificant specific combining ability (SCA) variance for the juvenile period (J.P.). This indicates that the inheritance of the J.P. is of an additive nature, a mode of inheritance which is a function of the inheritance of a complex of factors governing "growth". The mean J.P. of apple progenies varied between 3.4 and 5.0 years, that of pear progenies between 4.7 and 7.0 years.
The implications for breeding are discussed.

Symposium on Juvenility in Woody Perennials

T. Visser

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1976.56.23