New pear hybrids for growing in Latvia

Successful and profitable pear growing is dependent on the availability of cultivars with high fruit quality, resistance to causal agents of diseases and adaptability to local growing conditions as well as good storability.
There is a lack of high-quality winter cultivars among currently grown in the commercial orchards in Latvia.
Actually only one pear cultivar appropriate for storage meets these requirements and unfortunately is already out-dated and should be replaced.
The aim of this study was to evaluate two selected pear hybrids for growing in Latvia.
Hybrids ‘BP 8965’ and ‘BP 10529’ are developed from cross between the cultivars ‘Clapp’s Favourite’ and ‘Beurre Blumenbach’ and their evaluation for economic characters was done at the Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing, Dobele.
Both hybrids had high quality fruits to be used both for fresh consumption and processing, with the average fruit weight 195 and 213 g for ‘BP 8965’ and ‘BP 10529’, respectively.
The fruit skin of ‘BP 8965’ is greenish yellow, blushed red by sun exposure, whereas fruit skin of ‘BP 10529’ is green with russeting.
The flesh of ripe fruits is tender, juicy and buttery for both of them.
The flavour is sub-acidic, sweet and aromatic.
Fruits endure common harvest manipulation, have good transportability and good storage performance – can be kept for six months after picking.
Tested hybrids were productive and precocious.
They have a good resistance to causal agents of the most important fungal diseases – pear scab and European pear rust.

III Balkan Symposium on Fruit Growing

B. Lāce

Pyrus communis L., breeding, fruit traits, evaluation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1139.10