investigation of vegetative and reproductive traits and their correlation in progeny obtained from crossing between cultivars touno and shahrood 12 of almond

abstract almond is an important nut tree which is cultivated in many mediterranean countries. this study was carried out to study some vegetative and reproductive traits as well as qualitative and quantitative characteristics and their correlation in some self-compatible and self-incompatible genotypes obtained from crossing between touno (male parent) and shahrood 12 (female parent). quantitative traits were analyzed in completely randomized design (crd), with 12 replication using sas program. the mean was separated by duncan multiple range test. the results showed that genotypes together were significant difference in all traits measured except double kernels percentage. the results showed that genotypes no. 6 and 23 are very late blooming and self-compatible with had medium size and moderate quality fruits. however, genotypes no. 15 and 24 were classified as late to very late blooming and self-compatible. they produced large size and good quality fruit. the results correlation between traits showed that kernel weight had significant positive correlation with nut weight and fruit weight. in-shell/kernel ratio had also significant positive correlation with shell softness and suture opening of the shell. kernel taste had significant correlation with kernel to shell ratio, percentage of empty seeds, color intensity of kernel and smoothness of kernel. therefore, the smoother, clearer and low percentage of empty seeds resulted in sweet and good quality kernel.