Inheritance of Some Fruit Characters in Plum (Prunus domestica L.)

Plum seedlings of 8 half-sib and full-sib families were studied together with their parents for some quality components. Records for disease resistance were also taken in the seedling fields and some differences were found. Narrow sense heritability (h(2)) was highest for soluble solids with 0.67 whereas h(2) was not significant for neither fruit form, measured as fruit length divided by fruit width, nor titratable acidity. Narrow sense heritability for fruit size was 0.52, meaning that selecting the right parents based on phenotypic value will lead to good breeding progress for fruit size and soluble solids. Both these characters are of great importance in the creation of new cultivars.