FIRST RESULTS OF THE NECTARINE BREEDING PROGRAMME IN BULGARIA

The start of the new breeding programme of the Fruit Growing Institute – Plovdiv in 1989 for improving the peach cultivars marked the beginning of the organized breeding activities in Bulgaria for improving the nectarine cultivars.
The major aim of the programme was to extend the nectarine ripening season by establishing new cultivars of early and late ripening and at the same time obtaining fruits of better sensory characteristics.
An additional breeding aim set was the establishment of nectarine trees with a specific crown type – pillar, pendula and dwarf.
The hybridization plan included 13 parent combinations and populations from open pollination.
The hybrids were obtained in the period 1989-1996 by conventional hybridization applied.
The number of the hybrid plants was 392, out of which 14 elites were selected.
The best economic and biological characteristics were manifested by elite 23-40 (‘Gergana’), obtained from the parent combination ‘Golden Grand’ × ‘Aurelio Grand’. Its fruits are large (120 g), having very good sensory indices and ripening 25 days before the fruits of ‘Independence’ and 10 days after ‘Aurelio Grand’.

I Balkan Symposium on Fruit Growing

A. Zhivondov

Prunus persica var. nectarina, breeding, hybrids

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.825.18