Evaluation of Vegetative Traits and Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of some Commercial Cultivars of Apple in Shahkoh, Golestan Province

To study yield and different traits and select the suitable apple cultivar for Golestan province, some vegetative traits and fruit quantitative and qualitative characteristics of five commercial apple cultivars Golden delicious, Red delicious, Braeburn, Red spur and Fuji grafted on MM106 were evaluated in Shahkoh during 2013-2015 using a completely randomized design with three replications and three trees in each replication. The highest yield efficiency was 0.49 kg per cm2 of trunk cross area in Red spur cultivar followed by Braeburn, Fuji, Golden delicious and Red delicious. Maximum firmness (5.74 kgcm-2) was in Fuji cultivar and minimum (4.82 kgcm-2) in Braeburn.The highest amount of total soluble solids and acidity were in Golden delicious cultivar (13.37 and 1.45, respectively). Results of simple correlation analysis indicated the existence of significant, positive or negative correlations between some characteristics such as fruit dimensions and skin thickness and cultivar. Based on the obtained results and due to short season growth period in shahkoh mountains, early to medium season ripening cultivars and semi-standard to standard rootstocks can be recommended for cultivation in this region.