Inheritance of some apricot fruit attractiveness characteristics.

Fruit appearance is one of the most important characteristics which determine their commercial value. Fruit attractiveness is highly dependent on their size, shape and colour. The study was conducted at a breeding orchard of the Fruit Growing Institute - Plovdiv, Bulgaria and describes fruit biometry, shape, ground colour and over colour of three apricot hybrid families. The largest fruits were obtained out of the parental combination ‘Modesto’ x ‘Harcot’ and the smallest – from ‘Lito’ x ‘Silistrenska ranna’. The fruits obtained from the hybrids of the crossbreed ‘Harlayne’ x ‘Harcot’ were also large but tend to get smaller when the trees are overloaded.