SodininkyStĖ ir darŽininkyStĖ 28(2)

SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF THE LITHUANIAN INSTITUTE OFHORTICULTURE AND LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE.SODININKYSTĖ IR DARŽININKYSTĖ. 2009. 28(2).Evaluation of nine apple cultivars on rootstockB.396 in the young orchardAudrius Sasnauskas, Dalia GelvonauskienėLithuanian Institute of Horticulture, Kauno 30, LT-54333 Babtai, Kaunas distr.,Lithuania, e-mail A.Sasnauskas@lsdi.ltIn 2002–2006 at the Lithuanian Institute of Horticulture blooming period, tree growthvigour, yield, resistance to scab (Venturia inaequalis), harvesting time, storage life and qualityof fruits were studied in 9 new apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) cultivars. Trees were graftedon rootstock B.396 with spacing 4 × 2 m.The following apple cultivars were distinguished for particular characteristics: ‘Auksis’ –earliest blooming, ‘Scarlet Spur’, ‘Superchief’ and ‘Oregon Spur’ – latest blooming, ‘OregonSpur’ – weakest growth, ‘Auksis’ and ‘Superchief’ – for yield in the young orchard; ‘Auksis’,‘Early Red One’ and ‘Oregon Spur’ – for highest class of fruits; ‘Scarlet Spur’, ‘Auksis’ and ‘FujiNagafu’ – resistance to scab, ‘Red Idared × 10687’, ‘Superchief’ and ‘Oregon Spur’ – for storagelife; ‘Early Red One’, ‘Scarlet Spur’ and ‘Auksis’ – for fruit weight and fruit quality.Key words: apple, cultivars, phenology, growth, resistance to diseases, yield, qualityof fruits.Introduction. Selection efficiency is a key issue in a breeding programme. Breedingconsists of identifying as quickly and as precisely as possible the most promisingprogeny plants. A challenge to efficiently is find the outstanding genotypes proneto become a successful commercial cultivar out of a large quantity of progeny plants(Kellerhals et al., 2009).The assortment of apple cultivars suitable to the Lithuanian climate conditionsdiffers significantly from the neighbouring countries. For this reason apple cultivartesting is one of the important bases for exchanging information about new introducedcultivars. To increase apple cultivars commercialization, knowledge on phenotypic,productivity and fruit quality are very important. The main task is to obtain new applecultivars with superior fruit qualities, high productivity, resistance to diseases andpests, winter hardiness, storability and marketability (Kellerhals et al., 1999; Faediet al., 2002; Sansavini et al., 2005).Many introduced apple cultivars were investigated at the Lithuanian Institute ofHorticulture (Uselis, 2001; Sasnauskas et al., 2005; Sasnauskas et al., 2007; Sasnauskaset al., 2008)3