ISHS Acta Horticulturae 596: VIII International Symposium on Pear
SELECTION OF SUPERIOR CLONES OF EUROPEAN PEARS IN HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA |
| Authors: | D.R. Gautam, N. Sharma |
| Keywords: | Pyrus communis, superior clones, pears, germplasm, cultivar |
| Abstract:
Pear is the third important temperate fruit crop grown in Himachal Pradesh. Soft type of European pears were introduced in end of the 19th century mainly by English settlers in hills. Since, then ‘Williams’ and ‘Red Bartlett’ have been cultivated by fruit growers on a limited scale but their commercial production and large scale expansion started in the 1980s with increasing problems in apple cultivation. Although European pears have been cultivated for over 100 years there is large variation in productivity and fruit quality. Due to the increasing interest of fruit growers in maximizing pear cultivation, an effort was made to select superior cultivars and to develop a budwood source of superior clones for our growers. On the basis of these studies, 38 meritorious trees with higher productivity, and early maturity were selected in the entire region and evaluated for 5 years (1993–97). Clones finally selected include three ‘Red Bartlett’ (003, 004, and 027), two of ‘Williams’ (017 and 023) and one each of ‘Max Red Bartlett’ (011), ‘Napoleon’ (038), ‘Marie Louse Marillat’ (034), and ‘Starkrimson’, a red sport of ‘Clapp’s Favorite’ had good productivity and market response. | |
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