Volume 30 Number 1 Article 11 Pages: 13-13
Year 1976 Month 1
Title: Early Testing for Cold Resistance of Peach and Apricot Seedling
Author: R.C. Lamb
Citation
Abstract:
Present measures of the hardiness
of seedlings, for the most part, require
a bearing tree.
A technique to measure
or estimate this characteristic earlier
in the life of the seedling, so that nonhardy
individuals could be discarded
before planting in the orchard would
make the program much more efficient.
Two possibile techniques are described
that, it is hoped, will achieve
this.
They are (1) freezing one-yearold
whips to -26° or -30°C and then
forcing them in the greenhouse to
evaluate the amount of injury, and
(2) freezing germinated seeds with
radicles 10-20 mm long to -35°C and
growing out those that survive.
Both
of these appeared to give fairly good
differentiation between resistant and
non-resistant individuals.
The results
from open pollinated progenies paralleled
pretty well the observed hardiness of those varieties.
However, it
will not be possible to really determine
the usefulness of these techniques
until the trees that were tested
as whips or seeds are bearing.
At that
time, blossom bud survival and wood
hardiness following cold stress can be
determined and the correlation between the results of the early and late
testing calculated.
APS membership administration
ISHS membership administration
