Assessment of sex, nut weight, germination vigour, stem growth, and development traits of pistachio cultivars (Pistacia vera L.) used as rootstock

ABSTRACT

Pistacia vera L. is the only edible plant with economic importance within Pistacia genus. In the current study, rootstock traits such as growth and development of major pistachio cultivars were evaluated in plants used as rootstock for pistachios in Turkey. The sex of 1008 individuals was determined using a molecular sex marker with HRM analysis. From the eight cultivars, the number of female and male plants were 453 and 413, respectively; and then used for phenotypic measurements. For each measurement period, analysis of variance established that there were no significant ‘cultivar x sex’ interactions or sex effects for stem diameter or stem height. However, the differences among cultivars were highly significant (P < 0.0001) at all measurement times. The maximum stem length and width values were in the progeny of the Ohadi cultivar, with the lowest values recorded for progeny of the Uzun and Kırmızı cultivars. The nut weights and stem properties of the plants were correlated with high positive coefficients, although the germination vigour was not statistically correlated with any other trait. The results of the current paper will aid the selection of candidates for future pistachio rootstock breeding programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Pistachio
• Pistacia vera
• rootstock
• marker-assisted breeding
• nut

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank for financial support provided by Scientific Research Projects of University of Çukurova [grant number FYL-2019-11313].