Acta Horticulturae, cilt.1226, ss.205-211, 2018 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2018 International Society for Horticultural Science. All Rights Reserved.Ankara province is located in Central Anatolia where a continental ecology dominates. Winters are cold, summers are hot and dry, humidity is low, and soil has high pH. In this study, performance of 46 hazelnut cultivars and selections were investigated in Ankara in 2015 and 2016. The continental ecology of Ankara had strong negative effects on nut and kernel traits. The average nut and kernel weights were 29.4 and 31.4% lower, respectively, for Turkish cultivars compared to the Black Sea region. Similarly, nut weights of ‘Barcelona’, ‘Ennis’, ‘Hall’s Giant’, ‘Gem’, ‘Willamette’, ‘TGDL’, ‘Tonda di Giffoni’, ‘Mortarella’, ‘Casina’ and ‘Segorbe’ were 37.0% lower on average. However, percent kernel was 6.2% higher in the Turkish cultivars, possibly due to better fill of the small nuts by the kernels. In Turkish cultivars grown near the Black Sea, the pellicle is easily removed from the kernels by dry heat (85-94% blanching), but in Ankara the range was 0.0-47%. ‘Tombul’ and ‘Foşa’ had a very low yield (<0.05 kg plant-1), but interestingly ‘Willamette’ had the highest yield (3.12 kg plant-1) followed by ‘Pauetet’ (1.92 kg), OSU 720.093 (1.74 kg) and ‘Tonda di Giffoni’ (1.55 kg). These genotypes have short and open husks and could be grown in Ankara since their kernels may have value for processed hazelnut products or oil production but not for the blanched kernel market. The Spanish ‘Negret’ was the most sensitive to this harsh ecology, as the trees did not survive although they were planted several times.