Articles
EVALUATION AND SELECTION OF PROGENY OF AN INTERSPECIFIC CROSS BETWEEN PRUNUS CERASIFERA AND PRUNUS SALICINA
Japanese plums are not often grown because there are not many adapted cultivars.
One of the objectives of the station INRA, Avignon is to develop new Japanese plum cultivars and to improve both their eating quality and fruit yield.
A controlled interspecific cross between Prunus cerasifera and Prunus salicina was made in 1985. Prunus cerasifera brought adaptation genes while Prunus salicina was used for it sweetness quality and fruit size.
The female parent was the Bulgarian myrobolan cultivar ‘Afaska’ and the male parent was ‘Harry Pickstone’ selected in South Africa for the fruit quality.
All the hybrids ripen very early like the myrobolan parent, between 10th June and 10th July whereas Harry pickstone ripens during the first week of September.
The shape and size of fruit are more similar to ‘Afaska’ fruit than to ‘Harry pickstone’ fruit.
Nevertheless some are intermediate.
The flesh colour is yellow and the skin colour ranges from yellow to dark red.
The eating quality is better than the flavour of myrobolan and fruit yield is suitable for most of the hybrids.
For the pre-selection of the best hybrids, two selection methods are compared.
The first evaluation over the four years resulted in 11 preliminary pre-selections.
The second method using an index, confirms the first choice.
Crosses with Prunus cerasifera seem to be a good way to create new cultivars adapted to our local climatic conditions and suitable for fresh consumption.
From the described cross, 1 or 2 cultivars are expected to be released.
Some hybrids have already been used as parents in other controlled crosses.