Genetic Variation in Nut and Kernel Quality Characteristics of Walnut Selected from District Budgam of Kashmir Valley

An intensive survey of walnut tree was conducted in Budgam district of Kashmir valley during 2006. Forty three bearing trees of walnut were selected across the district and nuts from selected seedling trees have been characterized for different in-shelled and shelled characters in laboratory. Most of the accession were round in shape, medium smooth in shell texture and light medium in shell colour whereas, rest of in-shelled characters had varied response. Regarding kernel characters only fourteen genotypes had well filled kernels and most of the accession had light to dark kernel colour. Kernel percentage was recorded highest in accession QCL6W-39 (58.00%) and lowest of 25.00% in the accession QCL6W-5 and recorded highest (21.8%) contribution towards diversity as compared to other metric traits. Highest coefficient of variation was observed for Kernel Weight (133.37%) followed by Nut Weight (54.59%) and Kernel percentage (35.54%). The variation for Nut Length, Diameter at Cheek and Suture were 16.65, 15.15 and 11.86 respectively. From this survey, it is concluded that the accession no. QCL6W-7, QCL6W8, QCL6W-16, QCL6W-18, QCL6W-23, QCL6W-35, QCL6W-36, QCL6W-38, QCL6W-39 and QCL6W-44 can be earmarked for utilization in future breeding programme for development of walnut varieties having better qualitative and quantatives characters.