Determination of Seed Germination and Seedling Characteristics of Amygdalus orientalis (Mill) and Amygdalus turcomanica (Lincz) Almond Species

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the seed germination and seedling characteristics of 13 genotypes for Amygdalus orientalis (Mill) and 8 genotypes for Amygdalus turcomanica (Lincz) selected from Southeastern Anatolia region of Türkiye. Stratification time (days), germination rate (%), the emergence rate (%), the emergence time (%), seedling length (cm), stem diameter (cm), the length of internodes, and branching status were examined in two wild almond species. The highest germination rates were obtained from O13 genotype (79.50%) of A. orientalis and T8 genotype (84.76%) of A. turcomanica. The emergence rates ranged from 49.4% (O4) to 85.69% (O12) in A. orientalis (Mill) genotypes and ranged from 57.16% (T1) and 75.00% (T8) in A. turcomanica (Lincz) genotypes. Emergence duration varied between 10 and 31 days in A. orientalis (Mill) genotypes and between 13 and 28 days in A. turcomanica (Lincz) genotypes. These results demostreated that seedling length varied between 21.95 cm and 48.50 cm, stem diameter between 2.30 mm and 5.09 mm in A. orientalis (Mill) genotypes, whereas seedling length ranged from 12.05 cm to 30.88 cm and stem diameter ranged from 2.22 mm to 3.29 mm in A. turcomanica (Lincz) genotypes.