Individual morphostructural components of yield in black currant cultivars

Background. The size of the fruit, its external attractiveness, along with other important characteristics of a variety, have always been important, especially for amateur gardening. Therefore, new cultivars replenishing the gene pool of black currant preserved by VIR, in addition to their main biological and economic characteristics (flowering and fruiting biology features, resistance to abiotic and biotic environmental factors), undergo mandatory testing for the quality of yield. The aim of this study was to assess individual morphostructural yield components in new cultivars added to the black currant collection of VIR.Materials and methods. The mechanical composition of berries and bunches was analyzed at Pushkin and Pavlovsk Laboratories of VIR in 2013–2015. Forty-one black currant cultivars of various ecogeographic origin were the material for the research. Cv. ‘Peterburzhenka’, listed in the State Register of Breeding Achievements for the Northwestern region of Russia, served as the reference. The research was conducted by conventional methods. Statistical data processing was performed using Microsoft Excel.Results and conclusions. Studying individual morphostructural components of yield made it possible to identify cultivars with the largest berries, the most stable fruit weight, and bunches containing 8–9 plump berries. The cultivars with the best combinations of the studied characteristics, suitable for large-scale cultivation and amateur gardening in the Northwest of Russia, are ‘Garmoniya’ (k-40677), ‘Kriviai’ (k-42517), ‘Ben Sarek’ (k-41435), ‘Joninai’ (k-43124), ‘Zhuravushka’ (k-40681), and ‘Shalynya’ (k-41988). Correlations between separate morphostructural yield components were identified, such as: fruit weight – fruit diameter (r = 0.92); fruit weight – number of seeds (r = 0.74); bunch length – number of flowers per bunch (r = 0.65), bunch length – number of berries per bunch (r = 0.52).