Correlation Between Flower and Fruit Characteristics in some Oilive Cultivars in Climatical Conditions of Tarom

To determine broad-sense heritability and genetic variance of some flower and fruit traits of twenty olive cultivars, a split-plot in time experiment based on CRD with three replications was conducted during two years at Tarum Olive Research Station in Zanjan province. Sixteen quantitative traits of flower, fruit, pit and leaf were evaluated. Analysis of variance of the data showed significant differences for most traits among cultivars. Genetic and phenotypic coefficients were nearly equal for about half of the studied traits, showing less influence of environmental conditions on them. Broad-sense heritability of fruit traits was about two times more than these of flower. The maximum and minimum broad-sense heritability were assessed for stone fresh weight (87.05 %) and final fruit set (7.04 %) respectively. The results revealed a positive and significant genetic and phenotypic correlation between oil percent and pulp/stone ratio in olive cultivars. Noticeably, fruit size (based on fruit fresh weight) was decreased by increasing of final fruit set. Hence, fruit oil content was decreased because of its low pulp/stone ratio. In general, a considerable genetic variation was observed among olive cultivars with respect to the studied studied traits. This shows the selection possibility of superior cultivars albeit, with attention to genetic correlation among traits and their heritability.