Fruit quality of old apple cultivars of the Carpathian Basin

From the beginning of the 2000s, it became one of the main aims of the Hungarian apple breeding program to collect the old cultivars of Hungary, and after they were planted in a cultivar collection, to evaluate their traits.
The traditional old apple cultivars of the Carpathian basin are well-adapted to the Hungarian conditions.
As a result they tend to be tolerant to the main pathogens, and environmental stress factors which are typical to the country.
Besides the aim of developing cultivars which need significantly less chemicals to be grown successfully, it is a new breeding aim to enhance the content of those components (antioxidants, pectins, etc.) which are responsible for health benefits of apple.
For this reason we consider the examination of fruit quality parameters of old cultivars and the selection of new breeding materials extremely important.
In this study, fruit analysis of eight old apple cultivars were carried out.
The main physical parameters, refraction, total acid content, pectin content and antioxidant power (FRAP) of the fruits were measured.
Based on their high fruit quality the investigated apple cultivars have considerable health benefits.
The proportion of their biologically active compounds is equal or higher compared to the reference commercial cultivars.
As a result of this, they will possibly be used by the Hungarian breeding program.

XIV EUCARPIA Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

G. Ficzek, O. Nagyistván, I Király, D. Papp, M. Tóth

apple breeding, resistance, breeding material, physical parameters, biologically active compounds

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1172.63