Some results of the apricot breeding program in Fruit Growing Institute – Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The Fruit Growing Institute – Plovdiv, Bulgaria has launched its apricot (P. armeniaca L.) breeding program in 2008. By a hybridization of the parental cultivars ‘Lito’ and ‘Silistrenska ranna’, ‘Modesto’ and ‘Harcot’, ‘Harlayne’ and ‘Harcot’ a rich hybrid found was created and studied in detail.
The progenies were genotyped for PPV resistant alleles and hybridological analyses of some of their morphological and pomological traits were conducted.
The highest frequency of inheritance of the PPV resistant alleles was observed in the ‘Harlayne’ × ‘Harcot’ hybrid family.
Fifteen hybrids were selected for the next breeding steps – being used as parental cultivars for obtaining F₂ or grafting on rootstock and producing elites.
Full flowering date, ripening time, fruit weight, shape, colour, over colour and total soluble solids (TSS) of the promising hybrids were studied under agro-ecological condition of the Plovdiv microregion.
Most of the hybrids obtained by the parental combinations ‘Modesto’ × ‘Harcot’ and ‘Harlayne’ × ‘Harcot’ were medium to very large size (above 45 g) with very good TSS content – above 15 °Brix.
The fruit over colour varied in range 10 to 80%. Sensory evaluation of all the hybrids was done by a group of consumers and the hybrid fruits were highly scored.
The seedlings were also evaluated for their potential for breeding purposes.

XVII International Symposium on Apricot Breeding and Culture

M. Nesheva, V. Bozhkova, S. Milusheva

apricot, breeding, fruits, Prunus armeniaca, hybrids

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1290.1