GENETIC RESOURCES OF APRICOT FOR ADAPTABILITY IMPROVEMENT AND BREEDING

Collection of apricot gene pool began in the ‘60s at the Horticultural Faculty and it was initiated by Prof.
Vachůn and Prof.
Vávra.
Twenty years later, the breeding activities started on the base of knowledge of large gene pool collection.
Wide collaboration with foreign partners was developed based on plant exchange mainly with Botanical Nikita Garden Yalta, I.N.R.A. Avignon, USA, former Yugoslavia, Italy, China, South Africa, Hungary, etc.

From this collaboration and the associated characterization phases, a subset of adapted cultivars has been defined to pursue mainly adaptation objectives: 1) ad¬vanced adaptable cultivars: ‘Goldrich’, ‘Tomcot’, ‘Volsebniy’, ‘Vynosliviy’, ‘Leskora’, ‘Lejuna’; within the European eco-geographical group: ‘Rose Early’, ‘Bohutická’, ‘Bergeron’, ‘Keczkemeter rozsa’, ‘Domes’, ‘Leala’, ‘Markulesti’; 2) late dormancy termination: mainly genotypes from Middle Asia and Chinese eco-geographical groups: ‘Zard’, ‘Oranževokrasniy’, ‘Narjadniy’, ‘Vynosliviy’ and ‘Chuan Zhi Hong’; 3) hardy flower buds: the most hardy are ‘Vegama’, ‘Julskiy’, ‘Leronda’, ‘LE-498’, ‘Lejuna’; 4) hardy juvenile fruits: significantly or highly significant more frost resis¬tant than control cvs. (clones of Hungarian Best) are: ‘Leala’, ‘Lemira’, ‘Leskora’, ‘Lejuna’, ‘Lefrosta’, ‘Henderson’, ‘Zard’, ‘Oranževokrasniy’, ‘Markulesti’, ‘Re Umberto’, ‘Marlen’ and ‘Neptun’.

Concurrently, the impact of representative cultivars has been studied according to their combining ability: ‘Velkopavlovická’, ‘Hatif Colomer’, ‘VS 9/83’, ‘Lejuna’, ‘Vegama’, ‘SEO’, ‘Vestar’, ‘Julskiy’ and ‘Veharda’ for their behaviour in different progenies, or as eco-geographical groups’ representative.