Selektion av äpplefröplantor på Balsgård

Abstract: Today in Sweden, apples are mostly cultivated for direct consumption, i.e. dessert apples. Apple breeding aims at developing cultivars with new and improved qualities in order to meet the demands of different target groups and to increase the interest in apples on the market. Different target groups have different views on the qualities of an apple. The consumer, for instance, wants an apple that is tasty and beautiful, while the grower, in addition, wants an apple cultivar that is healthy, has good winter hardiness and a predictable, annual productivity. Lastly, the retail chains want a fruit that has qualities suitable for storage and transport. The purpose with this essay has been to, within a breeding program at Balsgård-SLU, select suitable cultivar candidates from a number of apple seedlings that originated from controlled hybridizations. Out of 930 apple seedlings, 23 were selected, that is 2,5%. Among these 2,5%, only a few seedlings had a sufficient number of good qualities to make them suitable for propagation on rootstock and further evaluation in observation trials. The fact that only a few seedlings were selected, is evidence of the difficulties involved in developing new, suitable apple cultivars, with the breeding methods used today. Furthermore, a consumer test was carried out at an apple market in Kivik where fruit from already established cultivars from a gene bank, along with advanced selections and newly selected apple seedlings were judged. The results showed that the apple cultivar Aroma, which was used as a control, is still a favourite among consumers. However, two apple seedlings approached Aroma, in terms of both taste and appearance, and may therefore be considered as promising cultivar candidates.