Volume 46 Number 3 Article 8
Year 1992 Month 7
Title: In Pursuit of a Better Pecan Cultivar
Author: D. Sparks
Abstract:
Pecan [Caryaitlinoensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch]
nut yields are low.
Except for initial cultivar
selections made in the early 1900's, a long-term
increase in marketable yield by cultivar improvement has not been documented.
Failure
of most of the many pecan cultivars is proposed
to be due to inadequate testing, overemphasis
of precocity and prolificacy, and low market
value of the nut.
Because pecan fruits are not
chemically or mechanically thinned, excessive
prolificness and resulting poor nut quality is
apparently the predominant reason for failure.
The proposal is made that for long-term success,
a cultivar should be precocious, but not prolific,
and have maximum nut market value (large,
early maturing nut, good cracking and shelling
characteristics, and a light colored kernel). The
vast gene pool in pecan offers the opportunity
to engineer a cultivar that will produce nut
yields greater than 'Desirable's' (an outstanding
cultivar) and maintain the same market value of
the nut, or maintain 'Desirable's' yield but in
crease market nut value, or both.
Breeding
strategies for obtaining these objectives are
proposed.
Full text download: APS subscribers
ISHS members & pay-per-view
(PDF 1344098 bytes)
Translate:
APS membership administration
ISHS membership administration
