Kurtulus 100, a New Superior Walnut Cultivar in Turkey; Field Experimental Comparative Results with Chandler

Abstract

Walnut is a fruit species with a high economic value and is cultivated in many different regions of the world. Walnut crossbreeding studies usually aim at producing walnut cultivars with high fruit quality and certain traits, such as a high yield, late leafing date, early harvest date, and resistance to plant diseases and pests. A new walnut cultivar, Kurtulus 100, was obtained from a KSÜ00M5 × Pedro crossing in 2005 and was registered in 2020. This new cultivar, Kurtulus 100, has an excellent yield and bears fruit terminally and laterally. The present study compares Kurtulus 100 and Chandler cultivars in terms of their various phenological and pomological traits. In this research, the average values of the 4‑year data are presented. The cultivar Kurtulus 100 has a leafing date 5 days earlier than Chandler and a harvest date 27 days earlier, and it produces a walnut that is jumbo in size with light-colored kernels. The overlap status of receptive duration and nut shape of Kurtulus 100 were homogamous and short trapezoid. Its nut weight, kernel weight, kernel percentage, and shell thickness were calculated to be 13.48 g, 7.52 g, 55.78%, and 1.10 mm, respectively. In general, it can be argued that Kurtulus 100 is superior to Chandler in terms of fruit quality. In addition, a kernel percentage of 55.78% is also a striking trait for this cultivar. It is thus evident that Kurtulus 100 yielded superior phenological and pomological values compared to Chandler.