ANCESTRY OF APPLE SELECTIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN

Since the mid 1960s, 30,297 seedlings from controlled crosses have been evaluated in our apple breeding program.
Young seedlings were selected following artificial freezing in a deep freezer or natural conditions in a nursery where –40°C lows are common each winter.
Only 8717 seedlings showed superior cold hardiness and were selected for field planting.
From this population, 68 advanced selections have been propagated for further study.
The most important parents for producing advanced selections were ‘Brookland’ and ‘Haralson’, which contributed 28.4 and 23.7%, respectively.
Tracing ancestry revealed the most important founders to be ‘Heyer 12’, ‘McIntosh’, ‘Ben Davis’, and ‘Malinda’ which contributed 17.6, 14.6, 12.2, and 11.8%, respectively.
An additional 13 founders contributed 20.8% while up to 11 accessions contributed 22.9% through open pollination.
Nine of the 51 cultivars developed through the Prairie Fruit Breeding Co-operative contributed 66% of the genepool.
The 20 cultivars developed at the University of Saskatchewan between 1923 and 1960 have not resulted in promising offspring and make up only 0.4% of the genepool of advanced selection.
Wild species have contributed less than 2.0% while cultivars of Russian origin contributed 23.8%. Of the advanced selections, 56 are third generation crosses while 12 are fourth generation.
None of the advanced selections have inbreeding in their lineage.
Hardiness and fruit size was emphasized in previous generations.
In the current generation those two attributes are more common and selection has been for fruit quality and storage life.