Breeding of new Apple Cultivars in Belarus

The article presented the results of 20 years of the Belarusian apple breeding programmne. Apple breeding has old traditions at the Institute for Fruit Growing in Belarus. Special attention is paid to new adaptive dessert apple cultivars. As a result of the second stage of the durable resistant apple breeding programme, conducted in 1994-2010, six Belarusian apple cultivars were submitted to State Testing of the Republic of Belarus. The cultivars were selected from the apple hybrid fund obtained in 1994-2000. In total, 252 progenies with more than 22 300 seedlings were assessed for their susceptibility to scab after artificial inoculation in the nursery, and almost 5000 seedlings were further evaluated for spontaneous infections after natural inoculation in orchards, where they had grown without any chemical spraying against the disease. After evaluation of three cropping seasons, 120 selections were propagated on rootstocks B.62-396 and PB 4. The best selections with combined resistance to fungal diseases and winter frost, high crop yield and attractive fruits were the new cultivars ‘Belana’, ‘Diyament’, ‘Krasavita’, ‘Navavita’, ‘Sakavita’ and ‘Zorka’.