Walnut cultivars with perspectives for ecological culture in Romania

Abstract

The objectives of the present study were to analyze the behavior of 11 Romanian walnut cultivars and one French cultivar (‘Franquette’) in North East of Oltenia, under conventional and during conversion to organic nut production. During conventional growing, the highest mean yields were recorded for ‘Jupânești’ (2.88 t/ha), ‘Valcor’ (2.77 t/ha), ‘Verisval’ (2.58 t/ha), 'Unival' (2.55 t/ha) and in the case of organic production the highest yields were observed for ‘Jupânești’ (3.5 t/ha), ‘Valcor’ (2.95 t/ha), ‘Unival’ (2.67 t/ha), ‘Verisval’ (2.62 t/ha), ‘Valrex’ (2.56 t/ha) and ‘Redval’ (2.54 t/ha). Nuts of these cultivars were subject to measurements regarding fruit size index, index of roundness, nut weight, kernel weight and kernel ratio. The nuts of each cultivar were divided according to class sizes for the international markets. Cultivars with more than 80% of nuts larger than 32 mm were: ‘Valcris’, ‘Sibișel 44’, ‘Valcor’, ‘Germisara’ and ‘Franquette’. The walnut cultivars were evaluated depending on the attack of walnut blight (Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis) and anthracnosis (Gnomonia leptostyla) on leaves and fruits. Walnut blight and anthracnosis attacks were observed on ‘Sibișel 44’, ‘Germisara’, 'Velnița' and ‘Franquette’, while the least affected proved to be: ‘Valcor’, ‘Valcris’, ‘Unival’, ‘Jupânești’ and ‘Verisval’. As consequence, the following walnut cultivars have perspectives to be used for the ecological culture in Romania: ‘Valcor’, ‘Jupânești’, ‘Valrex’, ‘Verisval’, ‘Unival’, ‘Redval’, ‘Velnița’, ‘Timval’, ‘Germisara’, ‘Valcris’ and ‘Franquette’.

Keywords

• organic culture
• juglans regia
• cultivar testing
• crop
• nut trees