BREEDING INSTITUTIONS OF RUSSIA AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO IMPROVING THE APPLE TREE ASSORTMENT

Abstract

The requirements for apple cultivars are constantly increasing due to the improvement of their cultivation techniques. Even cultivars, which satisfied consumers 20-30 years ago, now do not meet due to the changed requirements. One of the main reasons for this lag of breeders is the duration of the juvenile period in hybrid apple seedlings. According to our data, it takes 27 years to create one cultivar (from hybridization to inclusion of the cultivar in the State Register of Breeding Achievements). The task is to reduce this period to at least 20 years. This reduction depends on the breeders.  The final assessment of the apple cultivar largely depends on the State Commission of the Russian Federation for Testing and Evaluation of Cultivars. Below is information on the number of apple cultivars created in large Russian breeding institutions. 57 apple cultivars have been created and zoned in the Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Breeding, of which 4 cultivars have already been zoned in 4 regions, 4 apple cultivars are zoned in 3 regions, 10 cultivars are zoned in 2 regions, the remaining cultivars are zoned in one region so far. FSBSI FSC named after I. V. Michurin (former CSL named after I. V. Michurin and Russian Research Institute of Horticulture named after I. V. Michurin). 37 apple cultivars were created and zoned. Of particular interest, in our opinion, are such new cultivars as Academic Kazakov, Blagovest, Bylina, Vishnevaya, Vympel, Pamyat Nesterova, Krasnoye Rannye, Munster, Flagman and Fregat. FSBSI FSC of Horticulture (Birulyovo). 18 apple cultivars have been created and zoned. All of them are zoned in the Central Region of Russia. North Caucasian FSSC of Horticulture, Viticulture, Winemaking. 34 apple cultivars have been created and zoned, of which 5 cultivars are already cultivated in two regions. Crimea. Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Scientific Center (Crimean Experimental Gardening Station). 14 apple cultivars have been developed. FSBSI Ural Federal Agrarian Research Center of the Ural Branch of RAS. 37 apple cultivars have been developed. In this article, the authors tried to show the tremendous work that apple breeders are doing in different regions of Russia.