ISHS Acta Horticulturae 165: III International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture
BREEDING OF HIGHBUSH BLUEBERRY IN FINLAND |
| Author: | H. Hiirsalmi |
| Abstract:
The cultivation of the highbush blueberry using foreign varieties has not been a success under the climatic conditions in Finland. The chief drawbacks are the rather poor winter hardiness of the varieties and their susceptibility to blueberry cancer, the stem disease caused by the fungus Fusicoccum putrefaciens Shear. To reduce the effect of the drawbacks, trials to cross domestic Vaccinium species with the highbush blueberry have since 1961 been carried out in the Department of Horticulture at Piikkiö. Of the species in the Nordic countries the bog blueberry, V. uliginosum L., with the same tetraploid chromosome number, 2n = 48, as the highbush blueberry, has been successfully crossed with the latter. On the basis of this cross-breeding the first Finnish highbush blueberry variety named ‘Aron’ was released for general cultivation in the spring of 1982. ‘Aron’ was chosen from among the progeny of the backcross ‘Rancocas’ x (bog blueberry x ‘Rancocas’). This variety resembles the foreign highbush blueberry varieties concerning both growth-related and culture-related characteristics. However, its winter hardiness and resistance to blueberry cancer are definitely superior to those of the foreign varieties. | |
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