Comparison of Morphometric Traits of Pecan Cultivars

Abstract

Pecan is a major horticultural nut tree that originated in North America and, in Turkey, it is generally cultivated in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. In this study, morphometric traits of twenty-one cultivars grown under equal ecological conditions in the Southeastern region of Turkey were determined. In addition, a multivariate analysis was performed on morphometric traits for determining suitable cultivars that show the best performance in these ecological conditions. The nut weight ranged from 3.66 g for ‘Cherokee’ to 10.35 g for the ‘Shoshoni’ cultivar. The ‘Choctaw’ had the highest kernel weight and kernel ratio ranging from 5.63 g to 58.60%. While the ‘Cherokee’ had the lowest ranging from 0.91 g to 22.84 g, respectively. A significant positive correlation between nut weight and kernel ratio was determined. The kernel weight was also highly correlated with nut weight and height. The use of clustering analysis according to Ward’s method allowed the establishment of relationships between pecan cultivars by separating them into four main clusters. Also, these results were supported by principal component analysis, and ‘Big Z’ and ‘Ideal’ cultivars were determined to be the closest cultivars. Results showed that there are quantitative differences regarding the genetic property of pecan cultivars and more than half of the examined cultivars showed a good performance in terms of nut quality criteria that are crucial in marketing. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis was effective in the differentiation of pecan cultivars and it has been evaluated that it can be used successfully in future studies.