Friday, March 4, 2016

Pecan seedlings heading for advanced testing

    Twenty years ago I made some controlled crosses between several pecan cultivars. Over the past three years we have been evaluating the nuts produced by the seedling trees that grew from those crosses (photo at right). This year, I have collected scions from a select group of trees from our breeding project to be grafted into advanced trials. The advanced trials should give us a better idea of how these selections perform in terms of yield, precocity, alternate bearing and tree growth habit.
   Yesterday, I photographed the nuts from trees that will be entering advanced trials this year. When you look at each photo, be aware that the two inshell nuts were placed on different sides to give you a feel for overall nut shape. A table of the 2015 average nut weights and percent kernel for these selections is given at the bottom of this post.

KT 114
    This first group of selections all resulted from crosses made between Pawnee and Greenriver (photos at left).
KT 116

KT 156

KT169























































KT 342
KT378

KT 129






























    The next group of selection are the results of crosses made between Pawnee and Major.

KT 143

KT 149
KT 201

KT 178




















































 

   The last seedling to enter into advanced trials this year will be an open pollinated Kanza seedling.














Nut weight and percent kernel data for the 2015 crop season is given below.