Imrpovement

Imrpovement
    Introduction and Selection
    Spur type cultivars
    • At Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra, spur varieties introduced through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi during the eighties are under evaluation. These varieties include Red Spur Delicious, Golden Spur Delicious, Miller’s Sturdeespur, Oregon Spur and Red Chief of which Red Spur Delicious has been found to be promising.

    • In UP, cultivars Red Spur and Oregon Spur were introduced from Italy and are being multiplied for evaluation.
    Golden Spur Delicious
    Colour Sports
    • Colour sports like Royal Red, Vance Delicious, Top Red, Skyline Superme and Red Delicious were introduced in HP. The cultivars Royal Red, Vance Delicious and Top Red and Skyline Supreme Red Delicious were found to be promising.

    Early varieties
    • Among the early varieties introduced at NBPGR Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla, EC 32221, EC 38683. Yandik-Ovskoe and Papisovka Canniaga are promising

    Low Chilling Varieties
    • Work at NBPGR Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla indicated that the cultivars Vered, Michal, Maayan, Shilomit, Hybrid-1 and Tropical Beauty were found to be promising for cultivation under mid and low hill conditions. In the mid hills of HP, the cultivars Tropical Beauty and Parlins Beauty were found to be the best in respect of yield and fruit quality.

    Scab resistant varieties
    • Scab is a serious disease of apple and none of the commercial varieties are resistant to it. Although some resistant varieties have been evolved in other countries, none of these compares favourably with the popular Delicious and its commercial sports. The scab resistant varieties Prima, Priscilla, Sir Prize, Jonafree, Liberty and Coop.12 introduced from USA are under evaluation at Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra and Bajaura in HP. selected and are being evaluated under different agroclimatic conditions.

    Selection of Parents
    • Most of the quality traits like size, shape, cropping, etc., are under polygenic control. Thus, when two cultivars are crossed, there will be a continuousImrpovement

    Introduction and Selection
    Spur type cultivars
    • At Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra, spur varieties introduced through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi during the eighties are under evaluation. These varieties include Red Spur Delicious, Golden Spur Delicious, Miller’s Sturdeespur, Oregon Spur and Red Chief of which Red Spur Delicious has been found to be promising.
    • In UP, cultivars Red Spur and Oregon Spur were introduced from Italy and are being multiplied for evaluation.

    Colour Sports
    • Colour sports like Royal Red, Vance Delicious, Top Red, Skyline Superme Red Delicious were introduced in HP. The cultivars Royal Red, Vance Delicious and Top Red and Skyline Supreme Red Delicious were found to be promising.

    Early varieties
    • Among the early varieties introduced at NBPGR Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla, EC 32221, EC 38683. Yandik-Ovskoe and Papisovka Canniaga are promising

    Low Chilling Varieties
    • Work at NBPGR Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla indicated that the cultivars Vered, Michal, Maayan, Shilomit, Hybrid-1 and Tropical Beauty were found to be promising for cultivation under mid and low hill conditions. In the mid hills of HP, the cultivars Tropical Beauty and Parlins Beauty were found to be the best in respect of yield and fruit quality.

    Scab resistant varieties
    • Scab is a serious disease of apple and none of the commercial varieties are resistant to it. Although some resistant varieties have been evolved in other countries, none of these compares favourably with the popular Delicious and its commercial sports. The scab resistant varieties Prima, Priscilla, Sir Prize, Jonafree, Liberty and Coop.12 introduced from USA are under evaluation at Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra and Bajaura in HP.

    Hybridization
    Selection of Parents
    • Most of the quality traits like size, shape, cropping, etc., are under polygenic control. Thus, when two cultivars are crossed, there will be a continuous range of expression of these characters in the seedlings and will not segregate into discrete categories.
    • Williams (1959) calculated that the percentage of desirable seedlings that can be expected as the main product of an apple breeding programme for polygenically controlled characters is seldom more than 40 per cent and for every additional character, the figure rapidly decreases. Thus, for a programme in which the main objective is polygenically controlled mildew resistances, size of fruit, season of maturity, flavor and colour of skin, a reasonable estimate would be 40,20,20,10 per cent respectively.

    New Varieties
    • The modern breeding, objectives are breeding of varieties with high yield, superior dessert and storage quality, disease and pest resistance. Breeding work on apple has been in progress at Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra in Himachal Pradesh, Fruit Research Station, Shalimar in Kashmir and Horticultural Experiments and Training Centre, Chaubattia in UP. The major objectives were better shelf-life, early maturity, high dessert quality and scab resistance.

    Shelf-life and dessert quality
    • All the popular Delicious group of cultivars ripens at the same time and thus cause glut in the market. With a view to combine high dessert quality with good keeping quality, work was initiated in Kashmir in 1956. Two hybrids, Lal Ambri (Red Delicious x Ambri) and agold. (Ambri x Golden Delicious) were released. Work on similar lines was started in HP in 1960 (Chand, 1962). As a result three promising hybrids, namely, Ambred, Ambstarking, and Ambrich were selected. Subsequently, hybrid Ambroyal was also selected Salient characters of these hybrids are enumerated below.
    Lal Ambri
    a) Ambred (Red Delicious x Ambri 157)
    • Tree is tall, maturity in second week of September; fruits medium in size, conical, symmetrical, bright red stripes over barium yellow ground; dots obscure; skin medium in thickness, smooth and glossy; flesh whitish, crisp, firm aromatic and juicy, keeping quality is good up to three months in air cooled storage. It has low incidence of powdery mildew, sooty blotch and apple scab.

    b) Ambstarking (Starking Delicious x Ambri 81)
    • Tree is vigorous, tall and open, maturity in second week of September; fruits medium in size, round, conical symmetrical and uniform in shape, currant red streaks over chrome yellow ground; dots numerous and conspicuous; skin rough, smooth, flesh whitish firm, crisp, tough and juicy; keeping quality comparable with Starking Delicious. It is tolerant to apple scab.

    c) Ambroyal (Starking Delicious x Ambri 84)
    • Tree is semi-dwarf and spreading. Fruit maturity is in third week of September; fruits medium in size, conical in shape; skin thin. smooth, red streaks on yellow ground; flesh white, soft, sweet, juicy with good dessert quality. Storage quality is comparable with Starking Delicious.

    d) Ambrich (Richard x Ambri 15):
    • Tree is semi-dwarf, semi-spur type; spreading drooping fruit maturity in second week of September, fruit medium size, round , conical in shape, symmetrical sides equal and uniform, skin thick, smooth with chrysanthemum crimson wash; flesh whitish, firm crisp, sub acid aromatic and juicy with good dessert quality. Tree is moderately susceptible to powdery mildew and tolerant to apple scab.

    Early and dessert quality
    • Work was started at Chaubattia in 1970 and two promising hybrids Chaubattia Princess and Chaubattia Anupam were evolved. Both these are from crosses of Red Delicious x Early Shanburry.Chaubattia Princess ripens during last week of June to the 1st week of July. The tree is of medium vigour with upright growth habit. Fruits are medium in size, regular and conical in shape. Fruit skin is thin and smooth with deep red streaks on pale background. Flesh is creamy white, crisp in texture, firm juicy and very sweet. TSS is 14 per cent and acidity 0.22 per cent. The fruit pressure at maturity is 14 to 15 1b/sq. inch. Keeping quality is quite good.

    Scab resistance
    • During 1983, crosses Gala x 58553, Liberty x Delicious, Gala x 6356-22 Gala x 6143-1, Freedom x delicious, Gala x Prima and Freedom (open pollinated) were made at Mashobra and the hybrid seedlings are being evaluated.

    Out breeding and Backcrossing
    • Dominant single gene resistance in a Malus species can be transferred to the cultivated apple by a modified backcross procedure to avoid inbreeding. The method involves crossing the wild species with a large fruited cultivar. The resistance F1s is heterozygous and the best ones are selected and backcrossed to a good cultivar and their progeny yields 50 per cent resistant seedlings. The best of these are again backcrossed to a good cultivar until all the good qualities of the cultivated apple are recovered and the resistance from the wild species retained. This avoids inbreeding by alternating different cultivars for the recurrent quality parent and eliminates loss of vigour and incompatibility problems.

    Mutation Breeding
    • Work on induction and selection of desirable bud mutants was taken up at Horticulture Experiment and Training Centre, Chaubattia in 1973. As a result, four mutants with distinctly compact habit and better keeping quality of fruits were

Last modified: Saturday, 9 June 2012, 5:37 AM