Seed germination time as a criterion for the early selection of late-flowering almonds

With 2 tables The breeding of new late‐flowering almond cultivars is a long process, due mainly to the long juvenile phase of the seedlings. Early selection methods would improve the efficiency of breeding programmes. In this work, we investigated the use of seed germination time to select for late‐flowering almonds in 136 seedlings representing six progeny from controlled pollinations performed in 2002. Germination time for seeds with mesocarp and endocarp removed was recorded during stratification, and time of leaf budbreak and flowering were recorded in the fourth and fifth leaf. Within the six progeny evaluated over 2 years, correlations between seed germination and leaf budbreak of the seedlings ranged from 0.02 to 0.43, and for the pooled data averaged 0.48. Correlations between seed germination and seedling flowering time ranged from 0.06 to 0.55, and for the pooled data were 0.50. These results indicate a relationship between times of germination of the seeds and flowering of the resulting seedlings, but the low correlations indicate that the usefulness of selection based in seed germination time will be limited.