Apple is known as the king of temperate fruits / symbol of health/premier fruit of the world. Cultivated apple Malus X Domestica are diploids (2n =34) and few are triploid (2n=51) and ancestor of it is Malus sylvestris. Apple originated from Southwestern Asia and belongs to family Rosaceae subfamily Pomoideae. It is a deciduous fruit tree mostly grown in temperate region of the world. It is a deciduous fruit tree mostly grown in temperate region of the world.
OTHER SPECIES
- Sucker free species - Malus siversii
- Apomixis species - Malus sieboldii
- Indigenous to Himalayas - Malus baccata var himalacia , M. sikkimmensis
- Resistant to scab - M. floribunda , M. atrosanguina
- Resistant to powdery mildew and Codling moth - M. zumi
- Resistant to woolly apple aphid - M. hupehensis
BREEDING OBJECTIVE
1. Since Apple is a composite tree consisting of rootstock and scion, there is also need to develop rootstock with the aim to manipulate growth, suitable for a specific location as well as for good reproductive ability.
2.To involved varieties red in colour with early maturity, high yield, superior dessert and storage quality and resistant to diseases(scab) and pests
ROOTSTOCK BREEDING
- To develop woolly apple aphid resistant rootstock using a Northern Spy as a source of resistance
- To focus on productiveness and tree size control
- Adaptation to soil and pest problems
- It shows considerable resistance to crown rot and winter hardy like P-1, P-2, P-16, P-22 from M-4 X Common Antonovka
Recent Rootstock Research Comprises:-
i. Development of new dwarfing, winter hardy, efficiently cropping clones, using cross-breeding technique
ii. Evaluation of recently developed dwarfing rootstocks of Czechslovakia and USSR origin.
The present breeding programme is with primary focus to study the genetics on heritability of vigour, rooting, feathering, earliness of bud break and efficiency of cropping.
Evaluation research is mainly aimed to test the efficiency of propagation, influence on the growth of a cultivar, precocity of bearing, cropping efficiency and resistance to pests and diseases
SPECIAL FEATURES OF ROOTSTOCK AND IT’S CHARACTERISTIC
BREEDING OF SCION CULTIVAR
Fruit appearance -fruits should have attractive good colour, a regular shape
Northern spy, cv like Jonagold and Elstar
Fruit size – 65 mm diameter is generally
of 65-75 mm dia eg : triploid var like Crispin, Holstein , Jonagold etc
Eating quality – prefers cv having medium
16%).
Fruit color-Europe – Golden delicious, jonagold, Elstar
North American –Golden delicious, Red delicious, Mc Intosh (low acid/ low sugar and
good culinary apples)
India –Red delicious, Royal delicious
Yield – it should have high yield cv like
• Pest and disease resistance viz Malus floribunda, Malus zumi, Malus hupehensis
• Early maturity and have long shelf life.
• Cold hardiness – Honeycrisp, Lobo, Katjo, Mantet, Fireside, Wealthy, Yellow Transparent
• Winter chilling requirements – Anna, Einshemer , schlor , Mollie delicious, Adina
• Season of flowering – late flowering considered as the best as it avoid from disastrous spring fros
• Duration of juvenile period
• Season of ripening
• Compact columnar cultivars, new cultivar which has been selected at East Malling can be grown as natural
cordons without pruning.
• Mutation breeding, isolation of spontaneous somatic mutations in a
production of new apple
cultivar eg Dutch plantation of Elstar shows more coloured than its mother tree
Limitation in Conventional Breeding
- Slow and lengthy.
- Long juvenile period.
- Self incompatibility.
- Polygenic control of most of the
- Large population required to recover
Floral biology:-
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| Fig:- Floral diagram |
Flowers of apple cultivars and seedling vary considerably in shape, size and in colour from white to deep pink. They are borne in cymose clusters on fairly short pedicels, usually on spur type growth. but in some instances from terminal or lateral buds of the previous season’s growth. The typical flower consists of 5 petals, calyx of 5 sepals, about 20 stamens and pistil which divides into 5 styles. Ovary has 5 carpels, each usually containing seed content is 10 but some cv have more Northern spy usually have 12 to 18 seeds and Ottawa 3 rootstocks often has 20 to 30 seeds
Pollination:- Cross-pollination mainly done by insect particularly bees.
Some cultivars act as pollinizers are :
Tydeman’s Early Worcester: One of the earliest varieties and act as pollinizer for Delicious varieties.
Lord Lambourne: Hybrid between James Greeves x Worcester Peermans’s.
Granny Smith, Red Gold, Golden Delicious YellowNewton, Mc Intosh, Early Shanburry , Winter
Banana, Starkspur Golden, Golden Spur.
Methods of Crop Improvement
Introduction:-In apple lots of emphasis laid on introduction and selection during last decades. Apples are introduced for different purpose such as :
a) spur type cultivar - At regional research station , Mashobra (H.P), 12 varieties are
introduced through NBPGR New Delhi in 1980 Red spur delicious, Golden spur delicious,Oregon spur, Red chief, Miller, Sturdee spur,white spur , Stark crimson
b) Colour spots – Royal red , Vance delicious. Top red, Skyline supreme, Red Delicious
c) Low chilling variety – Introduced through NBPGR to RRS , Phagi , Shimla Vared, Michael , Tropical beauty, Parlin beauty, Mayan, Schlomit, Hybrid-1
d) Scab resistant var – Prima , Priscilla , Liberty, Florina, Macfree, Freedom, Coop-12
e) Early maturing var – Yandik onskoe , Papisonka canninga Introduced through NBPGR , New-Delhi.
• Of the scab resistant variety co-op-12 has shown better performance as an Early subacidic variety whereas Florina promised as a coloured sweet varieties
however none of these compared favourably well with popular delicious and its commercial spots, it is therefore logical that some of these tracts are incorporated in our commercial variety.
• Sufficient attempt have not been made to introduced low chilling apple cv in N.Indian plains and South India .
• From early introductions cv such as Tropical beauty and Perlin beauty were found to be best w.r.t.
productivity and fruit quality
• Some cv of Sub – Tropical apples are Maayan , Michael, Schlomit and Vared where introduction from Israel and are under evaluation.
Selection:-
• In Horticultural Experimental Station (TNAU) in Kodaikanal selected 1 variety i,e KKL-1 called as
Kodaikanal beauty , this is a selection from Parlin beauty
• Many of existing commercial cv which originated as chance seedlings are Golden Delicious, Baldwin and Granny Smith.
Hybridization:-
Apple improvement work has been going on (a) The Regional Fruit Research Station Mashobra, H.P.(b) F.R.S., Shalimar, J and K.(c) Horticulture and Experimental Training centre, Chaubattia, U.P.
Resulting in a no. of release of new varieties, work was initiated in Kashmir (1956) to combine high dessert quality of delicious group with good keeping quality of Ambri.
• Two hybrids such as Lal Ambri and Sunehri were released
• Similarly work has been also initiated in H.P. (1960) as a result hybrids Ambred ,Ambstarking and Ambrich have been developed . Subsequently hybrid, Ambroyal was also developed.
• Work on apple improvement was started at Chaubattia (1970 ) to developed Early maturing cultivar with good dessert quality.
• Two promising hybrids were involved Chaubattia Princess and Chaubattia Anupam
• Some crosses were also made to developed scab resistant cv
• Two outstanding hybrids Firdous and Shireen were developed to adaptation.
• Variety developed with parentage and important characters are as follows :
1. Jammu and Kashmir
Lal Ambri – Red Delicious X Ambri , Ambri with red colour
Sunehri – Ambri X Golden Delicious , Ambri with colour of Golden Delicious
2. Himachal Pradesh
Ambred – Red Delicious X Ambri-57 ,keeping quality good, low incidence of powdhery mildew , soothy blotch and scab.
Ambstarking – Starking Delicious X Ambri-81 , tolerant to scab
Ambroyal – Starking Delicious X Ambri-84 ,semi dwarf tree , semi spur type and having good dessert quality
Ambrich – Richared X Ambri-15 , semidwarf, semi spur, good dessert quality,tolerant to scab.
3. Chaubattia, U.P
Chaubattia Princess – Red Delicious X Early Shunberry, early ripe in last week of June, fruit with deep red streaks on pale background, very sweet and good keeping quality.
Chaubattia Anupam – Red Delicious X Early Shunberry, ripen in second week of July , fruit skin with shiny red streakes with red blush on pale background Inheritance of traits A no. of important horticultural traits are controlled by major genes and therefore incorporated in breeding programme for the development of new cvs . large no. of important characters of apple under polygene control
Powdery mildew single major genes PL1 and PL2, M. zumi and M. robusta. M. hupehensis has been reported to transmit resistance to woolly apple aphid and resistance to codling moth is incorporated from M. zumi.
Mutation Breeding:-
A bud sport is a mutation arising in a cell from which a bud developed. It affects growth habit particularly the spur or compact type which produce compact or Dwarfish. This is the basis for bud selection to maintain the integrity of the cultivar. The rate of single gene mutations can be increased by irradiation with X- ray, Gamma ray and thermal neutrons
Bud sport – due to mutation , Red Allister/ Red Elster ,natural mutant of allister
• Vance Delicious : Bud mutant of Delicious.
• Top Red : Bud sport of Shot Well Delicious
• Skyline Supreme Delicious : Bud mutant of Starking Delicious.
• Gold Spur Delicious : Bud mutant delicious Delicious. This variety is recommended as
pollinizer for all spur types.
• Red Spur Delicious: It is a variant tree in Starking Delicious orchard.
• Red Chief: Bud sport of Delicious.
Sterility and Incompatibility
- These are the two main causes of unfruitfulness in apple
- Apples has Gametophytic incompatibility whereby the pollen tube growth is arrested in the style
- Variety like Cox’s orange pippin , Golden russet and Northern spy. Apomixis
- Facultative apomixes is characteristic of a number of Malus spp that are probably of hybrid origin but does not appear to occur among the cultivated apple.
