Methods and Results of Apple Breeding at the Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Breeding

Abstract

For more than a 60-year period of apple breeding, 54 apple cultivars of different dates of fruit maturation have been developed and included in the State Register. Over this period of work, the requirements for new cultivars have significantly increased, and methods for creating new cultivars have been improved. Traditional methods of selection, i.e., repeated hybridization and geographically remote crosses, were used at the first stage of selection. The total result of this period is 17 zoned cultivars. At the next stage, the scab-immune cultivars (more than 20) were created, including the first domestic scab-immune cultivar Imrus (immune Russian cultivar). For the first time in Russia and round the world, a series of triploid apple cultivars has been developed that are characterized by high marketability of fruit, more regular fruiting, and partial autogamy. In connection with the intensification of horticulture, it has become relevant to create columnar apple cultivars that allow getting fast high yields due to super-dense planting. Triploid and columnar cultivars that have immunity to scab are of special value. Scientists have a strategic task to create triploid cultivars that have a columnar shape and immunity to scab. These cultivars will have a high rate of fertility, which will smooth out the periodicity of fruiting, increase productivity and marketability of fruits, make them more organic, and improve the environmental situation in the garden and its surroundings.