Cultivar pollinizer does not affect almond flavor

Abstract

The effect of pollinizer on sweet or bitter almond flavor was studied by tasting the seeds obtained from 32 crosses between sweet, bitter, and slightly bitter parents. Out of eight female parents, two were homozygous sweet ('Del Cid' and 'Ai'); two were heterozygous sweet ('Marcona' and 'Nonpareil'); one heterozygous with an almost undetectable slightly bitter flavor ('Ferrastar'); two heterozygous slightly bitter ('Garrigues' and 'Marie Dupuy'); and one bitter homozygous ('S3067', self-compatible clone obtained in CEBAS). Each cultivar was hand-pollinated with four male cultivars: one homozygous sweet ('Ramillete'), one heterozygous sweet ('Atocha'), one heterozygous slightly bitter ('Garrigues'), and one homozygous ('S3067'). Since 'Garrigues' is self-incompatible, the cross 'Garrigues' x 'Garrigues' was replaced by 'Garrigues' x 'S3065' (slightly bitter clone obtained in CEBAS). Tasting of the seeds resulting from each cross resulted in the complete absence of any influence of pollinizer on flavor, which only depended on the female parent.