Selected successful cultivars of the IEB apple breeding program

The program of the Station of Apple Breeding for Disease Resistance of the Institute of Experimental Botany focuses on breeding apple cultivars robust to apple scab, powdery mildew and other important diseases.
Several dozen cultivars have been released in the almost 70 years of existence of the Station.
The pivotal cultivars of the program are the dessert cultivars ‘Topaz’ and its red-colored mutation ‘Red Topaz’, ‘UEB 32642’ (grown and sold under the trademark Opal^®) and ‘Bonita’. ‘Topaz’ and ‘Red Topaz’ have been the most popular Rvi6 scab-resistant cultivars in Europe in the last two decades, with average annual sales of 400,000 trees in total.
They have become standard cultivars especially for organic production.
The fruit has an orange-red blush with weak stripes (‘Topaz’) or bright red over color (‘Red Topaz’), with a crisp, juicy flesh and is very tasty.
Opal^® and ‘Bonita’ are produced and marketed under the conditions of their clubs.
Opal^® is grown worldwide and is registered in dozens of countries.
Since its launch on the market, almost 3.4 million trees have been planted.
The fruit has a yellow skin, a crunchy, non-browning flesh and a honey-sweet flavour. ‘Bonita’ is a relatively new variety, but is already commercially successful, especially among European growers.
About 1.5 million trees have been planted so far, with annual sales of about 200,000 trees. ‘Bonita’ yields magnificent juicy fruit with bright red skin and a slightly acidic taste and the tree has good growing characteristics.
These cultivars are protected by plant variety rights in specific countries around the world.

XVI EUCARPIA Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

V. Forejtová, D. Tyè, R. Èerný

Opal^®, ‘Bonita’, ‘Topaz’, disease resistance, apple scab, organic production

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1412.32