Department of Fruit Breeding, Dr Y. S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan 173 230 (Himachal Pradesh).
Almond cultivation in the north-western Himalayas is greatly hampered by extremely low temperature during flowering and onset of the monsoons at the time of fruit ripening. This necessitates selection of late blooming and early maturing almonds for the region. As many as eight exotic cultivars including Non Pareil and six indigenous seedling selections were observed for time of bud break, flowering (full bloom) and fruit maturation for three consecutive years (1990 to 1992). Both the time of flowering and fruit maturation exhibited a great deal of variation indicating a part of it being due to genotypic variation. Five cultivars namely Nikitskyi, Prianyi, Tree No.2, Tree No.125 and White Brandis flowered 11 to 27 days late but matured 12 to 21 days earlier than the most popular cultivar Non Pareil. The utilization of these selections in commercial production and breeding programme is suggested.
Almond, Prunusamygdalus, evaluation,late flowering, early maturing, genetic diversity
