Articles
BREEDING NEW EARLY RIPENING “PRUNE” VARIETIES
Early ripening prunes of good quality are largely demanded on the foreign markets, as well as in Romania.
So, within a peculiar programme for varietal improvement, important breeding works have been realized since ten to twelve years by the Marculesti Research Station, Dep.
Ialomita, and also by the Fruit Culture Experimental Center of Baneasa-Bucarest.
Fourteen valuable hybrids have been issued, having a ripening time falling between the following varieties: Early Rivers/Peach, Peach/ Reine Claude d’Althan, Reine Claude d’Althan/Starking Delicious.
So the consumer can buy prunes from July 7 till August 7.
The fruits of these hybrids are large (over 35 g) and have a high dry matter content (12. 3 to 6. 8 p. 100); the skin is blue, very attractive; the stone is small (2. 9 to 5. 2 p. 100 of the total fruit weight) and can easily be removed from the flesh.
Most of these hybrids are issued through the following crosses: Reine Claude d’Althan x Early Rivers, Tuleu ras x Early Rivers, Reine Claude d’Althan x Wilhelmine Späth, Peach x Early Rivers.