Performance of Blackcurrant Cultivars Bred at I. V. Michurin All-Russia Research Institute for Horticulture

The breeding of blackcurrants in I. V. Michurin All-Russia Research Institute for Horticulture (ARRIH) has a history of 55 years. Joining of high productivity and quality of fruits, technological properties and resistance to abiotic and biotic stress in new generation cultivars are the main concepts in breeding of blackcurrants today. At the beginning of the 21^st century, 11 new blackcurrant cultivars were developed: ‘Charovnica’, ‘Elevesta’, ‘Malenkii Princ’, ‘Tamerlan’, ‘Chernavka’, ‘Shalun’a’, ‘Karmelita’, ‘Sensey’, ‘Divo Zvyaginoy’, and ‘Talisman’ with black coloured fruits, and ‘Izumrudnoye Ozherel’e’ with green coloured fruits. The complex evaluation of the newly released cultivars ‘Lebeduscha’, ‘Lyubava’, ‘Malenkii Princ’, ‘Talisman’, ‘Tamerlan’, ‘Charovnica’, ‘Elevesta’ was performed during 2007-2012 at I. V. Michurin ARRIH. In 2004, several cultivars from the I.V. Michurin ARRIH breeding programme, namely ‘Charovnica’, ‘Elevesta’, ‘Malenkii Princ’, ‘Tamerlan’ and ‘Talisman’, were planted in the collection of Pūre Horticultural Research Centre, Latvia, for evaluation of cultivar adaptability to local agro-meteorological conditions. The cultivars ‘Elevesta’ and ‘Talisman’ showed the best results among the tested cultivars