Highbush blueberry breeding | Augstkrūmu melleņu selekcija
2009
Hancock, J., Michigan State University, East Lansing (USA)
Most of the blueberry cultivars now grown in the world came from the breeding programs of Frederick Coville (1908 – 1937), George Darrow (1938-1958) and Arlen Draper (1965 - present) of the United States Department of Agriculture, and Paul Lyrene (1978 - present) of the University of Florida. Until about 30 years ago, highbush blueberry cultivation was restricted to cold climates, as the original cultivated species, Vaccinium corymbosum, required about 800 – 1000 chilling hours below 7 deg C for normal floral development. To expand the range of highbush blueberry cultivation into the southern USA, Ralph Sharp of the University of Florida and Darrow hybridized the original northern highbush types with native southern species. There are now three types of highbush blueberry varieties grown worldwide - Northern, Southern and Intermediate. These vary in the number of chilling hours they require for normal floral development and their level of tolerance to winter cold. The primary goals of today’s southern and Intermediate highbush breeders are to obtain early ripening types with high plant vigour, disease resistance and a later bloom (particularly in Florida). Northern highbush breeders are concentrating on flavour, longer storing fruit, expanded harvest dates, disease and pest resistance and machine harvestability. Current trends in highbush blueberry breeding include speeding the cultivar release process, expanding the germplasm base of varieties and licensing.
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