Heritability of flowering, productivity and maturity in almond

First, full and final flowering times, duration of flowering, flowering and production densities have been studied for 51 families of almond seedlings during the third, fourth and fifth years after planting, and for their parents. Maturity time and duration of maturity have also been analyzed for 32 of these families, over two years. The heritabilities of these characters have been determined by regression and variance components analysis. These were high for times of flowering and maturity and for duration of maturity and intermediate for densities of flowering and production. The inheritance of duration of flowering was very variable and uncertain. All characters are quantitatively inherited and some non-additive genetic effects were involved in time of maturity inheritance. The influence of year effect in these characters was also determined.