Breeding studies on some hard-shelled fruits in our country

Breeding studies in horticultural crops is a long-term, very tiring, labor and expense, and continuous research activity. Especially since it takes a long time for fruit trees to grow and bear fruit, breeding studies in horticultural crops require a very long time, great expenses and a large area. Walnut breeding studies from stone fruits started in the early 1970s in Turkey. The first breeding studies were carried out in the form of selection from local populations, and later on, the crossing method was also used in the breeding programs prepared. Since walnut is a plant that is adversely affected by late spring and early autumn frosts, obtaining late leafing and early deciduous genotypes in walnut breeding programs has been one of the main objectives of the breeding study. The fact that our country has a rich genetic variation in terms of stone fruits has enabled success in breeding studies in a short time. Almond breeding studies in our country started in the early 1968s. Almond breeding studies in our country have started with the selection of genotypes with the desired characteristics by selection method from local populations. Pistachio breeding studies in Turkey started a little later than walnut and almond. The first hybrid breeding program of our country for pistachio was established in the early 1996s. To date, a large number of walnut breeding studies have been carried out in our country, both by the selection method and by the hybridization method. Numerous walnut, almond and pistachio breeding studies have been carried out by the faculty members of the Horticulture Department of the universities and by the researchers working in the Research Institutes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and as a result of these studies, new plant varieties have been developed to meet the seedling need in the country's stone fruit growing. Recently, private sector seed and arboriculture organizations have also been included in these studies as well as government institutions. Walnut, almond and pistachio breeding studies carried out by these organizations continue at full speed. Today, biotechnology has been included in fruit breeding studies and the breeding period has been relatively shortened. In this study, walnut, almond and pistachio breeding studies were investigated from stone fruits in the world and in Turkey. Key words: Walnut, Almond, Pistachio, Genotype, Selection, Gene sources