Fruit Characteristics of Selected Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in Inebolu (Kastamonu/Turkey) District

Abstract

In the Inebolu (Kastamonu) district of the West Black Sea Region, there are many chestnuts (Castanea sativa Mill.) trees. This study was carried out to determine promising chestnut genotypes and fruit samples from 62 trees representing the population that was investigated. The selected superior chestnuts had a nut weight between 5.68 +/- 0.35 g and 11.94 +/- 0.33 g, a kernel weight between 4.97 g and 9.79 g, a kernel ratio between 77.33% and 86.25%, shell thickness between 0.25 mm and 0.44 mm, fruit width between 16.11 +/- 0.47 and 20.48 +/- 0.87 mm, fruit length between 25.91 +/- 0.53 mm and 34.93 +/- 0.47 mm and fruit height between 23.87 +/- 0.45 mm and 34.89 +/- 0.28 mm and number of nuts/kg between 83 and 169. In addition, Chestnuts were determined as fruit characteristics brightness and harshness of shell, color of shell, color of kernel, peeling of testa, number of nut/kg. The data were evaluated by the weighted-rankit method. Relative scores of the chestnuts for general quality, nut size and suitability to chestnut paste were examined.