A brief history of the forty-five years of the Epagri apple breeding program in Brazil

Frederico Denardi,Maraisa Crestani Hawerroth,Marcus Vinícius Kvitschal

doi:10.1590/1984-70332019v19n3p47

Frederico Denardi, Maraisa Crestani Hawerroth + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-70332019v19n3p47

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Abstract

Abstract The E’AppleBP is the largest Brazilian apple breeding program in activity in Brazil, with Brazilian and international contributions to breeding of apple cultivars, under public funding. The main objectives are development of new apple cultivars with good local climate adaptation, disease resistance, high yield, high fruit quality, good fruit storability and lower demand for orchard hand labor. Twenty-seven apple cultivars have been released, including 15 from local breeding crosses and four sport mutations. ‘Fuji Suprema’, ‘Monalisa’, ‘Venice’, ‘Daiane’, ‘Luiza’, and ‘Kinkas’ are most promising for commercial use. The other eight cultivars were released for use as pollinizers.

Highlights

Since the beginning of apple cultivation in Brazil, one of the main challengers for apple growers has been deficient adaptation of high chilling apple cultivars to the local climate, including Gala and Fuji and their sport mutations, which have been imported from colder regions of the world
Deficient climate adaptation and high susceptibility to major diseases lead to low yield, low fruit quality and high production costs, which constitute the main shortcomings of the cultivars currently planted in Brazil
The initial objectives were to develop and/or introduce new apple cultivars well adapted to southern Brazilian climates that are resistant to the main apple diseases and have high yield potential and high fruit quality

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Since the beginning of apple cultivation in Brazil, one of the main challengers for apple growers has been deficient adaptation of high chilling apple cultivars to the local climate, including Gala and Fuji and their sport mutations, which have been imported from colder regions of the world. Since traditional Gala and Fuji clones are not adapted to the climate in important regions of temperate-zone fruit production below 1,200 MASL in southern Brazil, the E’AppleBP is being developed in the EECd, midwestern Santa Catarina, at 960 MASL under a mild winter climate – 1,017 chilling hours on average In this climate, the choice of parents for hybridization based on local climate adaptation (lower chilling requirement than ‘Gala’ and ‘Fuji’) augments the chances of obtaining advanced selections with good adaptation to the local climate in both regions simultaneously – in the highlands with severe winters and the midwestern part of the state with mild winters. Many characteristics of high agronomic value are under polygenic control (Janick et al 1996), and the complexity of segregation for these characteristics requires careful choice of parents based on previous studies of heritability, a concern that has been

Ripening period

Very high

Development of seedling populations and disease inoculation

Findings

Screening for resistance to the main apple diseases