OVERLOOK ON ALMOND CULTIVARS AND ROOTSTOCKS: A LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCE

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 591: III International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds

OVERLOOK ON ALMOND CULTIVARS AND ROOTSTOCKS: A LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCE

Author:	A.J. Felipe
Keywords:	Almond, cultivars, rootstocks.
Abstract: When a professional career has been completely devoted to specific applied research, focused on a concrete area of work, it seems convenient to analyse the state of the research work when it was first approached and the progress made up to the end of the research activity. This retrospective view recognizes the contribution that has led to such progress, through the author’s personal work on one hand, and through the participation in work-teams specialized on several aspects of the same theme on the other. This hindsight seems very interesting because: It presents a perspective of the evolution of the theme on which the author has worked, since the author's first involvement. It leaves some place for self-criticism over: The author's personal sensitivity to connect with the industry and understand and capture its problems. The imagination with which one has contributed to the search for appropriate solutions. The personal ability to connect and co-operate with other people who, working in different aspects of the same theme, could offer complementary contributions. Very few researchers can make an ordered summary of the activities in which they have been involved as well as the positive or negative consequences due to lack of time and necessary tranquility during the years of hard work. For 35 years, the author has carried out many activities mainly focused on the study of almond material and its behaviour. These studies have been carried out about the two components: cultivars and rootstocks. In this work, the author tries to present, in a chronological order, the activities related to almond in which he has participated as a member of several teams. The industry problems, the available budget and the composition of the different teams, always change the balance towards one or the other plant component (cultivars or rootstocks). Nevertheless, the author has always kept in mind the need to collaborate in searching for methods to solve or reduce the problems that may come up on the way. This participation in various work-teams allowed diverse information to be offered to the industry concerning techniques and methods that led to improve and regularise the Mediterranean almond production. The resulting offer also includes some new autogamous cultivars and several rootstocks, all of them more efficient and adapted to our soil and climate environments.
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