Articles
RED RASPBERRY CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PEST RESPONSE AND GERMPLASM EXPLOITATION
Four of these are now being grown on large-scale commercial trials in the Pacific Northwest.
In addition, 76 advanced selections show varying degrees of superiority in plant and fruit traits, including pest responses, compared to Willamette which is the established cultivar in the Pacific Northwest.
Among the cultivars, Nootka looks promising for machine harvesting for a processed product.
Skeena and Chilcotin are considered multipurpose cultivars adapted to both machine and to hand harvesting.
Skeena produces large, firm fruit which appears ideally suited to long distance shipping.
Germplasm exploitation has emphasized broadening the genetic basis of immunity to Amphorophora agathonica, the aphid vector of raspberry mosaic virus, and of resistance to the fruit rot causal organisms, Botrytis cinerea and Rhizopus spp.
An alternative source of aphid immunity has been found in some selections of the indigenous North American red raspberry.
This immunity is now being incorporated into the program.
Cultivars with more than one source of immunity will be less likely to show genetic breakdown with the appearance of virulent biotypes of the aphid.
Higher levels of fruit rot resistance are being sought through combining the intrinsic type of resistance observed in some derivatives of the Cuthbert cultivar and the resistance associated with firmness observed in black raspberry derivatives.