The joint IRTA-ASF peach breeding program: outstanding quality fruit adapted to the Mediterranean conditions

The joint IRTA (Spain) and ASF (France) peach scion breeding program started in 2004 with the economic support of ‘Fruit Futur’ (a company representing approximately 40% of the fruit production in Catalonia), with the objective of obtaining new cultivars with outstanding fruit quality and well adapted to the Mediterranean growing conditions.
The program aims to obtain different types of fruits (peach, nectarine, flat peach and flat nectarine) with yellow or white flesh and firm flesh texture, and with the widest achievable harvesting season.
Agronomic traits such as high production and low maintenance growing habits together with medium flowering intensity and intermediate fruit set are also breeding objectives.
Recently, long shelf life, low susceptibility to storage disorders and disease resistances (mainly to powdery mildew and brown rot) have been added as important breeding aims in the breeding program.
Selection plots are placed at Gimenells (Lleida), one of the main peach producing areas of Spain.
The selection process for the 26,787 seedlings raised so far has resulted on more than 20 elite selections, and 19 cultivars currently under registration process that are at this time being planted in different commercial orchards in Spain.

XIV EUCARPIA Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

C. Cantin, C. Fontich, I. Batlle, I. Iglesias, R. Dolcet-Sanjuan, S. Alegre, J. Carbó, J. Bonany, A. Maillard, L. Maillard

Prunus persica, cultivars, breeding, selection, organoleptic quality

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1172.29