Visser (1965) and Visser et al. (1976) also used morphological
markers and found a negative correlation between seedling vigor,
tree size and duration of juvenile phase in apple and pear trees. In
addition, a significant positive correlation was found between trunk
diameter, tree height and also annual growth rate, and it was also
determined that trunk diameter was negatively correlated with
branch numbers and bloom period trait. In the very early ripening
cultivars (‘Yellow Transparent’ and ‘Golab-e Sahne’) a high and
positive correlation was observed between blooming period and
number of branches. This is in agreement with Lauri and Costes
(2004) who found a relationship between bloom period and architectural
traits in apple. Contrarily, a high negative correlation was
observed between bloom period and ripening time traits. These
findings are agreed with those of Kazlovskaya (2005) confirming
the positive correlation between earliness, tree height, leaf length
and chlorophyll content; and Hajnajari et al. (in press, 2012) indicating
morphologies among half sib and full sib families derived
from early parents benefit higher narrow sense heritability than
late ripening progenies. Based on these results morphological traits
are efficient tool in screening of offspring in juvenile phase for overcoming
the time consuming phase of juvenility as a physiological
barrier in classic breeding process.