GRAPE CULTIVARS OBTAINED BY INSTITUTE OF BOTANY, THE CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THEIR EXTENSION IN CHINA

The research program of germplasm collection, conservation and breeding in grapes was initiated in the Botany Institute of CAS in 1954, when the Beijing Garden was founded, focusing on the selection of new cultivars of early ripening table grapes with good storage potential and adaptation to Chinese environment with high quality, wine grapes and juice grapes with high resistance to cold and diseases.
Throughout half century, great achievement had got in grape breeding.
Seventeen grape cultivars, including 10 table grapes, 4 wine grapes and 3 juice grapes had been obtained by Institute of Botany, CAS. Five early ripening grapes, named for ‘Jing’ series such as ‘Jingzhaojing’ (seedless), ‘Jingya’, ‘Jingyou’, ‘Jingxiu’, ‘Jingyu’ are very famous for their early ripening cultivar and good quality in China.
The land area under cultivation of the ‘Jing’ series grapes was estimated to 49,373.3 Ha in 2003, accounting for about 13% of the vineyard throughout the whole country. ‘Jingya’ and ‘Jingxiu’ are the most extensively grown in China among the cultivars obtained by the Botany Institute of CAS, and their growing area was more than 10,000 and 30,000 Ha in 2003. Four wine grapes and 3 juice grapes, names for ‘Bei’ series, were selected from the hybrids and their descendents of Vitis vinifera ×V. amurensis and from V. thunbergii ×V. vinifera, respectively.
Those wine and juice grapes have an important advantages of high resistance to cold and fungus disease (grape downy mildew, bird’s eye rot and powdery mildew) and they don’t need bury in winter in North Plain of China and can grow normally with few phytochemical protection in south areas in China where the climate is warm but too humid to grow V. vinifera grapes.
The growing area of wine grapes ‘Beichun’, ‘Beihong’ and ‘Beimei’ had been over 7,000 Ha in China, especially in South of China, due to their high resistance to diseases, cold and good adaptation to humidity. ‘Bei’ series grapes have good adaptation to poor soil and also good grafting compatibility with V. vinifera varieties, so they have been used for grape rootstocks in South of China.
The sugar content of ‘Bei’ series grapes is high and the content of soluble solid is in general between 19%-23%. The color of wine or juice, made from ‘Bei’ series grapes is good and certain of them have Muscat aroma, especially for ‘Beimei’ (wine grape) and ‘Beixiang’ (juice grape). Those ‘Bei’ series have been attractive to Chinese organic juice and wine industries.

International Workshop on Advances in Grapevine and Wine Research

S.H. Li, P.G. Fan, S.C. Li, M.R. Yang

Grape breeding, table grape, wine grape, juice grape, extension

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.754.8