Types of tree growth and fruit setting in F1 apple hybrids

Abstract

1656 F1 hybrid apple seedlings, belonging to 127 combinations, have been screened according to their growing and fruit setting types, as it was phenotypically expressed. LESPINASSE (1977; 1992) amalgamated these two traits into a single one which was named ";ideotype";. The screened F1 individuals have been considered as resembling one of the following four architectural ideotypes of the trees indicated by Lespinasse: columnar, spur, standard and weeping. Different ratios of spur, standard and columnar F1 individuals were obtained depending on genitors and on the fact that a certain genitor had been used as a maternal or paternal partner in direct/reciprocal crosses. The monogenic inheritance of the columnar ideotype, proposed by Kelsey and Brown (1992); Lane (1992), does not seem to be the only genetic mechanism involved in the inheritance of this trait. Our experimental results suggest the polygenic determination of this ideotype as more probable than the monogenic one.