APRICOT BREEDING IN CASERTA: RESULTS AND PERSPECTIVES

Italy is the third greatest producer country in the world, with over 7% of global apricot production.

Apricot is grown in many Italian regions, but the Vesuvian area, in Campania region, is the most traditional area of cultivation.
In this area, the apricot biodiversity is rather ample: roughly 30 different varieties are normally cultivated, while more than one hundred have been recognized.

This biodiversity has also been employed in a genetic improvement programme of apricot to meet the needs and the applications of growers and the processing industry.
The programme was started with the aim of reaching the following main goals: early and late ripening, elevated and regular productivity, high quality of fruit (size, sugar content, aroma, flesh firmness, etc.), resistance to the most important diseases (Monilinia laxa, Sharka) and processing suitability.

Standard breeding techniques, i.e. self pollination, open pollination, crossing by emasculation and hand pollination have been employed.

In this programme, 84 varieties of apricot, coming from different geographical areas, have been used, thus realizing 156 different combinations that have produced over 7000 seedlings, of which more than 4000 have already been considered.

Two new early ripening cultivars, Ischia and Procida, were patented in 2007, but many others are interesting selections that will be proposed to the growers.

These selections, still being valued, could allow extending and completing the ripening calendar; some others possess interesting characteristics.
As for the growth habits, different typologies have been observed – spur, weeping, flattened – which can be also of some interest for the realization of particular forms of training.

Tests are in progress in order to determine the agronomic behaviour of these selections in different environment of Southern Italy.