Two New Sweet Chestnut Cultivars from the Anatolian Region: 'Unal' and 'Erfelek'

Abstract

The European chestnut ( Castanea sativaMill.), which is native to the Black Sea, Marmara and Aegean Regions of Turkey, plays an important role in both forests and orchards of Asia Minor (Anatolia). In orchard plantings, it is preferable to establish selections with improved traits. The aim of our work was to study the morphological and phenological characteristics of the selections 'Unal' (SE 3-12) and 'Erfelek' (SE 21-9) from the Black Sea Region and to register them as new cultivars for potential orchard plantings. Morphological characteristics such as tree vigor and growth habit, shoot, leaf, flower, bur and fruit characteristics, and phenological characteristics such as time of bud break, flowering, nut ripening and leaf fall of these cultivars were studied on 9-year-old trees for three growing seasons (2006-2008). Both cultivars had a similar tree vigor and growth habit. 'Unal' had dense but thinner and shorter lateral shoots and longer leaf lamina and petioles, but lower individual leaf area than 'Erfelek'. 'Erfelek' started to break bud, bloom and ripen two weeks earlier than 'Unal'. Both cultivars had small but very bright, dark brown, highly acceptable fruits with light cream kernels. The seed coat on fresh fruit peeled easily and didn't penetrate into the kernel in either cultivar. Both 'Unal' and 'Erfelek' have been registered as new cultivars.