COMBINING ABILITY AND CORRELATIONS OF WINTER SURVIVAL, ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE AND MORPHOLOGY IN JUVENILE APPLE TREES

Abstract

In apple rootstocks and scion diallel crosses, general combining ability (GCA) was high for winter survival, juvenile tree morphology and electrical impedance (except in late spring, due to desiccation) and specific effects (SCA) were higher than reported by Watkins and Spangelo (1970). Correlations showed that electrical impedance is reliable for indicating presence of winter damage but not for predicting it. Relative hardiness of two scion cultivars was indicated.