KIWIFRUIT BREEDING AND OBTAINING NEW CULTIVARS IN TURKEY

Abstract

Kiwifruit have been grown in Turkey for 25 years, especially in the Marmara and Black Sea regions. Mainly it is the Actinidia deliciosa cultivar ‘Hayward’ that is grown. However, in recent years, different cultivars and species have started to be grown as their fruit fetch higher prices in the market. As world production of kiwifruit has increased, so prices have declined. Increased product diversity, in the Actinidia species and cultivars grown, and improvements in fruit quality should help to prevent such a decline in prices. For this reason, the Yalova AtatA¼rk Central Horticultural Research Institute has initiated a kiwi breeding program in order to obtain new kiwifruit cultivars with superior characteristics. In this breeding program A. chinensis Jintao® (J), A. chinensis ‘Hort16A’ (HO), A. chinensis cultivar B (B) seedlings and A. deliciosa ‘Hayward’/Top Star® A— ‘Tomuri’ (TH) hybrids have been studied. Some phenological and pomological evaluations of these hybrids were conducted for three years. Priority has been given to selections with yellow fruit flesh and hairless skins for the evaluation of flavour and aroma. Very recently, some promising candidates have been selected to become the new kiwifruit cultivars of Turkey. Cultivation of these new cultivars should increase the profitability of orchards. This should allow the greatly expanded expected production in the near future, ten times more than at present, to be profitable.