Heritability of some characteristics of Sorbus torminalis seedling

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the heritability of some characteristics of wild service (Sorbus torminalis L. Crantz) seedling by a half-sib progeny test in north of Iran. The seeds of Sangdeh provenance (1600-1800 m a.s.l.) were collected from twenty individual parent trees and planted in a mountainous nursery (Orimelk, 1550 m a.s.l) as randomized complete block design with three replications. At the end of third growing season heritability of some seedling characteristics was determined with using Falconer method. Analyses indicated that heritability of biggest branch (h2 = 0.003) and branch number (h2 = 0.007) was lower than those of other characteristics measured. Heritability of collar diameter, vitality and total height was h2 = 0.22, h2 = 0.20 and h2 = 0.17, respectively. Among 20 parent trees the genotypes 2, 11, 18, 19 and 20 can be introduced as plus trees for seed providing and seedling production. It can be deduced that for seedling production of Sorbus torminalis in this nursery the parent trees should be benefited from a better collar diameter, vitality and total height in order to occurrence possibility of high-quality progenies.