Ecological and geographical grouping of pear varieties and identification of new sources for breeding in the conditions of the North Caucasus

Abstract

The article presents the results of a long-term study of the world collection of pears, which is one of the largest in the RIPB system. It is kept at the Maykop Experimental Station of the Federal Research Center of the All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources named after N.I. Vavilov» branch and has 875 varieties, 248 species, forms and varieties, and is constantly updated with new samples. The collection includes wild species, as well as Russian and foreign varieties from Europe, America, Asia. The research was carried out in the soil and climatic conditions of the foothill zone of the North Caucasus in 2005–2015. The aim of the research is to study the dependence of biological traits and properties on the origin of samples and to isolate genotypes with the maximum expression of traits for use in breeding. In the research the methodological instructions of the All-Russian Research Institute of Breeding of Fruit Crops and the North Caucasus Center for the Breeding of Fruit, Berry, Flower and Ornamental Crops and Grapes have been used. The analysis of weather conditions has been carried out using meteorological data of the MES of the RIPB Branch. The regularities of the manifestation of signs and biological properties of the studied samples depending on their geographical origin have been established. The varieties that combine a fairly good quality of fruits and other, valuable characteristics have been identified: late flowering for protection from frost – Obilnaya Tuza, Uspenka; resistance to fungal diseases – Vodnik, Utrennyaya Svezhest; early maturity – Borup, Napoca and high regular yield – P. regelii x P. pyrifolia № 2 interspecific hybrid. As a result of many years of studying the world collection of pears the list of isolated genotypes of valuable traits has been added, the use of which contributes to a significant increase in the efficiency of breeding work.