ISHS Acta Horticulturae 663: XI Eucarpia Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics
GENETIC CONTROL OF THE GROWTH HABIT OF APPLE TREES |
| Author: | V. Djouvinov |
| Keywords: | apple, tree architecture, breeding |
| Abstract:
As part of the breeding programme for developing new apple cultivars resistant to scab and field-resistant to powdery mildew, crosses were made to produce hybrids with the so-called “T” growth habit (the skeleton branches located close to the horizontal). The hybrids obtained showed a great diversity in terms of tree habit – between 20 and 130° angles of the skeleton branches toward the vertical axis. Because of the difficult crown training in cvs such as Granny Smith, Gloster, etc., the selection was directed towards hybrids with naturally trained slender-spindle trees. The results obtained so far allow the conclusion that the growth habit of apple trees could be genetically controlled to obtain the desired habit to ensure a high productivity of trees with reduced costs for training and pruning. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
