Promising Pear Genotypes from North Anatolia, Turkey: Preliminary Observations

Abstract

Anatolia is one of the primary gene centers of origin of pear. The main aim of this study was to describe pomological and phenological characteristics of wild selections of pear genotypes from North Anatolia which has a rich local pear population. Pomological characteristics such as fruit weight, flesh firmness, fruit shape, skin ground color, soluble solids concentration, titratable acid concentration, and eating quality, and phenological traits such as first flowering, full flowering, days from full flowering to maturity, and harvest date were examined. The potential of the pear genotypes that were studied was determined by a "weighted ranked method" based on fruit weight, eating quality, appearance, russet intensity, alternate bearing and earliness. Overall, 14 pear genotypes were selected as promising genotypes from the 98 pear genotypes that were initially included in the study. The genotypes 'Dalkiran', 'Yaz Ziraati' and 'Kara Armut-II' had the highest scores. In the 14 genotypes examined, fruit weight varied from 50.7 to 533.8 g and from 45.9 to 479.9 g in 2008 and 2009, respectively and, correspondingly, harvest dates ranged from 5 July to 6 November and 16 July to 30 October, days from full flowering to maturity varied from 103 to 212 days and from 89 to 206 days, flesh firmness varied from 4.1 to 8.8 kg and 4.4 to 11.5 kg, soluble solids concentration ranged from 8.8 to 19.0% and 11.0 to 16.2%, and titratable acid concentration ranged from 0.13 to 0.62 and 0.21 to 1.02. Further assessment of these promising genotypes will be carried out under standardized, controlled cropping conditions.