Implications of investigating pollination and cross compatibility in the almond varieties of Afghanistan

Survey and collection of almond accessions for a National Collection of Fruit and Nuts of Afghanistan began in 2007. Investigations into cross compatibility of almond accessions began in 2008 on in situ collected exemplar trees, and in 2010 on trees in the ex situ collections. The methods varied in relation to specific trials, nevertheless as an average 150 flower buds were isolated ahead of flowering on 7 one-year-old shoots per tree, and used as pollen donors or receptors. The initial trials on in situ accessions were performed on one single tree per variety, while six trees were used for the tests carried on in the ex situ collections. Fruit set percentage from self-pollination, cross-pollination and open pollination was calculated. All native Afghan varieties tested were shown to be self incompatible. Various problems related to weather and other conditions worked against a comprehensive testing of all combinations of varieties, although many useful and surprising conclusions were reached