Plants – Rose – Climber
Plant Patent
1998-04-29
2001-05-22
Campell, Bruce R. (Department: 1661)
Plants
Rose
Climber
Plant Patent
active
PP011891
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE NEW VARIETY
The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of almond tree,
Prunus dulcis
, which will hereinafter be denominated varietally as ‘Durango’, and more particularly to an almond which produces fruit mature for commercial harvesting, hulling and shipment during the fourth week of August to the first week of September in the Orland area of the Sacramento Valley and which is further distinguished as to novelty by producing a soft-shelled almond; the kernel having a flavor characteristic that is excellent compared to ‘Peerless’ and similar to ‘Carmel’ with a high percentage of the kernels free of doubles.
There are a number of criteria at which a commercial variety of tree fruit and nuts must excel in order to be a success in the commercial market. Among these are ripening date, flavor, texture and shipping quality. With tree fruits and nuts such as almonds the early ripening date, the quality of the meat of the kernel, freedom from an unusual number of doubles, and more particularly, a soft shell makes this new almond commercially attractive and thereby appealing to the distributor and the consumer; thus providing a substantial likelihood of success.
Almond varieties are characterized as to soft shell or hard shell; the latter characteristic makes nut (kernel) removal difficult and hard to market because of the nature of the shell, i.e., it is difficult to crack. In addition, the variations in maturity dates vary considerably—approximately six weeks—thereby providing long harvesting, hulling, and shipping seasons. Most particularly in almond varieties of tree fruits the ease of shelling and the high quality of the kernel plus a very low percentage of doubles provides an excellent appeal to the distributor and consumer.
ORIGIN AND ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF THE NEW VARIETY
The present invention of almond tree hereof was discovered by the inventor in his orchard which is located on the east side of Road S and south side of Road 25, approximately five miles southeast of the town of Orland, Calif.
The variety was discovered as an open pollinated seedling growing as a volunteer near a ‘Peerless’ almond planting in the late 1980's to possibly 1990. After several years of observation the inventor had the new invention asexually propagated by budding and/or grafting on fifty-four trees of peach (Lovell) root in the vicinity of Orland, Calif. in 1992 through 1993. These trees have been observed over the past three years by the inventor and are confirmed to be identical to the original tree of the new variety. Fifty-four trees resulted from the first asexual propagation. The progeny did not display any changes morphologically from the parent plant. The trees are in their 4th leaf and the vigor of this new variety is similar to the vigor of the ‘Peerless’.
SUMMARY OF THE NEW VARIETY
The ‘Durango’ almond tree is characterized by producing a soft shelled almond which resembles the ‘Peerless’ almond but has some of the varietal characteristics of the ‘Carmel’ variety. The fruit (nuts) produced by the ‘Durango’ variety is ripe for commercial harvesting, hulling and shipping approximately in the fourth week of August to the first week of September. The new and novel variety, as stated earlier, is perhaps most closely similar to the ‘Peerless’ but distinguishes therefrom as to the soft shell nature and it is harvested two to five days later than ‘Peerless’. The nut weight is similar to the ‘Peerless’ variety of almond. The new variety is equal to or slightly larger than the ‘Peerless’ variety with a high quality and high percentage of meat weight as compared to the total weight of the almond in shell (69%). The low percentage of doubles in the shell (0.4%) is an excellent characteristic. Although this new invention somewhat resembles the kernel quality of the variety ‘Carmel’, the meat of the kernel is light colored, similar to the ‘Peerless’ variety.
REFERENCES:
patent: P.P. 4651 (1981-02-01), Horton
patent: P.P. 5085 (1983-08-01), Bradford
patent: P.P. 8236 (1993-05-01), Spoto
Hortus Third, compiled by the staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, Macmillan, NY, 1976.*
Wandell, Willet N., Handbook of Landscape Tree Cultivars East Prairie Publishing Illinois, 1989.*
Brochure, The Burchell Nursery, Inc. “Leading the Industry in Growing Trees of Superior Quality”, entire brochure.
Baker Wendy A.
Campell Bruce R.
Kreten Bernhard
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