Plum research and growing in Latvia
Kaufmane, E., Latvia Univ. of Life Sciences and Technologies, Cerini, Krimuna Parish, Dobele Municipality (Latvia). Inst. of Horticulture | Gravite, I., Latvia Univ. of Life Sciences and Technologies, Cerini, Krimuna Parish, Dobele Municipality (Latvia). Inst. of Horticulture | Ikase, L., Latvia Univ. of Life Sciences and Technologies, Cerini, Krimuna Parish, Dobele Municipality (Latvia). Inst. of Horticulture
Plums have been commercially grown in Latvia since the 19th century. Plantations expanded especially in the 1920s–1930s. At that time, many cultivars were introduced, mostly from Western Europe. After the severe winters of 1939/40, 1941/42, 1955/56, and 1978/79, the plum orchard area significantly decreased because of a lack of winter-hardy cultivars. For this reason, cultivars from Russia, Belarus, and Estonia were introduced. Among the old landraces, highly winter-hardy ‘Latvijas Dzeltenā Olplūme’ is still important. Previously it used to be productive and had good fruit quality. Unfortunately, nurseries often propagated the hardiest clones, which lacked productivity. As Latvian consumers love yellow plums, at present breeding and propagation of productive clones from old orchards is on-going. In the mid-20th century, active plum breeding started in Latvia, crossing hardy genotypes with high quality donors. From this period ‘Lāse’ and ‘Minjona’ are still grown. Since the 1980s, plum breeding has been undedrtaken at the Institute of Horticulture. The crossing work in plums concentrated on the hexaploid group, aiming to combine large fruit size with good flavour, different time of ripening (in particular, early to medium late) and good winter-hardiness. New cultivars include ‘Sonora’, ‘Ance’, and ‘Adelyn’, which have good quality, and productivity 20–30 kg per tree, and in some years up to 70 kg per tree.
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