RED RASPBERRY CULTIVARS AND SELECTIONS FROM THE PACIFIC AGRI-FOOD RESEARCH CENTRE

The Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre (PARC) breeding programme supports the raspberry growing industry throughout the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Of special interest is the development of cultivars adapted to both the processing and fresh markets and with resistance or tolerance to diseases and pests.
The most important pests include raspberry bushy dwarf virus (RBDV), the North American aphid vector (Amphorophora agathonica Hottes) of the raspberry mosaic virus complex (RMV), root rot (mostly caused by Phytophthora fragariae var. rubi Wilcox & Duncan), and post harvest fruit rot (mostly caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. ex Fr.). Earlier releases which have met with success include ‘Tulameen’, now the most extensively planted fresh market cultivar in the world, as well as ‘Qualicum’, ‘Chilliwack’, ‘Skeena’ and ‘Chilcotin’. Recent releases include ‘Malahat’, which has become the leading cultivar in the PNW for the early fresh market and is also adapted to machine harvesting for the processing market, and ‘Cowichan’, which appears to escape the pollen-borne RBDV and is equally suited to both processing and fresh use.
Other recent cultivars are ‘Chemainus’ and ‘Esquimalt’. ‘Chemainus’ is suited to both market outlets, whereas ‘Esquimalt’ is best suited to the late fresh market. ‘Saanich’, another multi-purpose cultivar, is the most recent release and is particularly well-suited for the IQF market.
Advanced selections, including several with genes derived from hitherto unexploited selections of the North American red raspberry, Rubus strigosus Michx (R. idaeus subsp. stirgosus Michx.), will be discussed.

IX International Rubus and Ribes Symposium

C. Kempler, H.A. Daubeny

Rubus idaeus, Rubus strigosus, fruit breeding, fruit quality, yield, disease resistance

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.777.6