Effect of ecological conditions on expression of biopomological characteristics of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in natural populations of Montenegro

This paper presents the five-year long research results (2007-2011) of phenological observations (beginning, full flowering and the end of flowering), morphometric analysis (fruit weight, length, width and thickness of fruit, as well as length and width of the hilum), the ripening time and the average yield of selected genotypes of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.). The results show that in terms of time of flowering chestnut trees examined in the group are very early flowering. The ripening of studied chestnut trees shows that the earliest harvest tree was Ostros II, VII and Kostajnica V (09.11.), and Kostajnica III (14.11.) were the latest. The average fruit weight of the selected sweet chestnut trees was (6.9 g). The highest average fruit weight (10.6 g), had the examined Ostros I tree, and the lowest (4.8 g), Kostajnica VI. The yield of the tested chestnut trees was on average (76.3 kg / tree). The selected trees Kostajnica II (66.0 kg / tree), Kostajnica I (69.0 kg / tree) had the smallest yield and Ostros VI (94.0 kg / tree) and Ostros V (87.0 kg / tree) had the highest. Obviously it can be concluded that population genetic variability is very high and gene expression is highly affected in tested samples on both locations. For further research it should be given attention to investigate genotypes in controlled conditions, the best in vitro in tissue culture.