SodininkyStĖ ir darŽininkyStĖ 27(3)

SODININKYSTĖ IR DARŽININKYSTĖ. SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES. 2008. 27(3).Apple breeding at the Lithuanian Institute of HorticultureD. Gelvonauskienė, B. Gelvonauskis, A. Sasnauskas, V. Stanys, V. BendokasSummaryThe apple breeding program in Lithuania was started in 1952. The main objectives of thisprogram were to breed cultivars adapted to local climatic conditions, resistant to fungal diseases,productive, with fruits of good quality and high storage potential. Local apple cultivars andgeographically distant cultivars were used for crosses at the beginning of this programme. Lateron donors of such traits as scab resistance, columnar type habit, weeping habit, red coloring ofleaves and fruits were involved in crosses. Half-diallel and topcross mating design was startedto determine an inheritance of apple traits in 1987. It was shown that resistance to scab, mildew,apple blotch and winterhardiness are predominantly controlled by additive gene effects, andnonadditive effects and epistasis are little, but not significant. Cultivars with columnar habit andweeping habit were involved in crosses to breed cultivars with reduced shoot number and spurbearing type. In 1997 crosses were started to breed ornamental apple cultivars. Twelve applecultivars were received up to 2008 at the Lithuanian Institute of Horticulture. 147 advancedapple seedlings were selected, 28 of which were columnar type and 30 ornamentals, during1985–2008. Two scab immune seedlings were selected and named ‘Skaistis’ and ‘Rudenis’.Key words: apple cultivars, fungal diseases, inheritance, ornamental forms, winterhardiness.97