APPLE BREEDING PROGRAM IN PROGRESS AT RESEARCH STATION FOR FRUIT GROWING VOINESTI

Abstract

At the Research Station for Fruit Growing Voinești, the apple breeding program started after 1950, the year the unit was founded, when the first hybrid combinations were made. Over time and accumulated experience, cultivars or genotypes with a high level of genetic resources have been used in hybrid combinations, especially to obtain apple varieties with genetic resistance to diseases, an objective amplified after 1970, when the 'Prima' variety was registered. The high volume of hybridization works, carried out almost annually, was materialized by the large number of hybrid seedlings resulting from the thousands of seeds obtained and the transplanting of the seedlings in the selection orchard. The research undertaken aimed at obtaining apple varieties with genetic resistance to diseases, identifying potential genitors and valuable elites from selection fields and contest micro cultures, being evaluated and proposed for new hybrid combinations or testing and homologation. The studies being focused on the period 2016 - 2020, mention the obtaining of 915 genotypes, from 13 hybrid combinations, in which valuable parents were used in terms of genetic resistance to Venturia inaequalis (owners of the Vf gene), productivity and fruit quality. The number of existing hybrids in the selection field, resulted in a percentage of 53.8% compared to the number of pollinated flowers and 80.9% compared to 1,131 hybrid seeds obtained from 1,765 pollinated flowers, in a percentage of 64.1%. From the hybrid combinations previously carried out, there were identified genotypes that possess the gene for resistance to scab (Venturia inaequalis) and increased resistance to powdery mildew (Podosphaera leucotricha), productivity and fruits quality, some of which are candidates for obtaining new varieties, respectively, the elites: H 14/311-05, H 4/38-04, H 1/59-04, H 3/37-04, and elites H 4/17-04; H 19/6-04, H 2/3-04 are registered at ISTIS. Obtaining new apple varieties with genetic resistance to diseases is the main factor in the establishment of new ecological orchards, environmentally friendly, according to the consumer preferences.