Characterization and Evaluation Studies in Apricot Germplasm under High Hills of Himachal Pradesh

Sixteen apricot accessions in field gene bank of National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources Regional Station, Shimla were characterized and evaluated for qualitative and quantitative characters along with two checks ‘Nugget’ and ‘Royal’ from 2002–04. Morphological variation as expressed by the presence of many qualitative characters showed variability in the apricot germplasm. Highest Coefficient of Variation was observed for pulp-to-stone ratio (88.45%), followed by stone weight (63.21%) and fruit weight (36.78%) indicating enough potential for exploiting the variability for these characters. Correlation analysis showed that fruit length and width had significant positive correlation with fruit weight, while fruit weight had highly significant negative correlation with total soluble solids. Apart from check cultivars, EC552701 (St. Ambroise) and EC140315 (Harogem) were found suitable for planting in the mid and high hills of Himachal Pradesh due to their potential to prolong the fruit availability period besides meeting requirements of table purpose.