The production and growth of young apple compact mutants induced by ionizing radiation

The main purpose of this work was to produce compact mutants of apple, i.e. mutants which had shorter internodes and often shorter shoots than is normal for the variety.Scions of the apple varieties Cortland, Ingrid Marie, Gråsten, Close, Golden Delicious and Ildrød Pigeon were treated with gamma radiation (3000–7000rad). Following two propagations compact mutants were selected on the basis of internode length. All mutants, whose internode length was significantly shorter than that of the normal variety, are included in Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6. Most of these mutants had shorter shoots and thicker shoot diameters than the normal variety.The correlation between shoot length and internode length has made necessary the introduction of the term degree of compactness to characterize the mutants. If the relationship between internode length and shoot length of a mutant is similar to that of the normal variety then it has a low degree of compactness. If, however, the mutant's internode length is considerable less than is normal for the variety (still in relation to shoot length), then the degree of compactness is great. The selected mutants are grouped according to degree of compactness in Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6, beginning with mutants which are less compact.In all 8 Cortland, 11 Ingrid Marie, 9 Gråsten, 3 Close, 1 Golden Delicious and 1 Ildrød Pigeon compact mutants were found.