DETERMINATION OF CROSS-COMPATIBILITY OF NEW ‘MARCONA-TYPE’ AND ‘DESMAYO LARGUETA-TYPE’ ALMOND ACCESSIONS FROM ITAP

‘Marcona’ and ‘Desmayo Largueta’ are the most widely cultivated almonds in Spain, representing around 30% of the cultivated surface with 200.000 ha.
In the Spanish market they are the most valuable among the different cultivars.
Both cultivars are self-incompatible, and therefore they should be grown along with cross-compatible cultivars and beehives should be placed in the orchard to assure cross-pollination.
In some orchards in the inland of Spain, flowering of both cultivars partially overlap, allowing cross-pollination.
However, due to their early flowering, especially in the case of ‘Desmayo Largueta’, it is difficult to find suitable pollenizers.
Thus, it would be interesting to find other genotypes with overlapping flowering times, and similar fruit characteristics and ripening times, which are cross-compatible with ‘Marcona’ and ‘Desmayo Largueta’. In this study, we have determined cross-compatibility of five ‘Marcona’ and four ‘Desmayo Largueta’ type accessions from “Instituto Técnico Agronómico Provincial de Albacete” (ITAP) by S-RNase PCR and microscopy fluorescence.

XII EUCARPIA Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

P.J. Martínez-García, F. Mañas, F. Dicenta, E. Ortega

Prunus dulcis, almond, clonal selection, flowering time, cross-compatibility

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.814.75