FIRST RESULTS OF THE NEW PEACH BREEDING PROGRAM CARRIED ON IN FLORENCE

The availability of a large collection of peach germplasm and the latest knowledge of character inheritance has allowed the individuation of several "potential parents" utilized for the realization of a "new peach genetic and varietal improvement program" started in Florence in 1983.

The program’s goal is the development of valuable cultivars of: white flesh canning peaches, white and yellow flesh canning nectarines, white flesh peaches and nectarines, ornamental and "double aptitude" peaches.
F₂ seedling are already available and the evaluation of the 52 isolated selections of F₁ seedlings is already taking place.
These selections provide us concrete possibilities in order to release in short time, several new cultivars: "white flesh canning peache" ("DOFI-84.334.015" selection is optimal); "white flesh peaches" ("DOFI-84.341.020" and "DOFI-84.342.002" selections are valuable); and especially the "white flesh nectarine", from which 20 studied selections fulfill the requirements for developing a new varietal assortment with a ripening period which includes the end of June ("DOFI-84.339.002" selection) and the end of September ("DOFI-87.405.036" selection). Final and more significant results are expected from the cross-breed combinations now being executed in which the seedlings are under careful observation.
The third cross-breed generation (F₃) forecasts the obtaining of new "canning nectarines" and is now being realized.

Peach, XXIII IHC

E. Bellini, E. Giordani, E. Picardi, G. Giannelli

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1992.315.5