Selection estimation of red currant hybrid family ‘Belaya Potapenko’ x SS 1426-21-80

Relevance. One of the priority trends in berry crop breeding is to create highly adaptive and resistant to biotic and abiotic environmental factors varieties with high commodity and consumer quality of berries, not inferior to the best Western European varieties.Material and methods. The research was conducted in 2017-2018 at VNIISPK (Orel) on the selection plot of red currants, planted in 2012, with a planting scheme 2.8 x 0.8 m. The research object was the selection red currant family 2466 (♀Belaya Potapenko x ♂SS 1426-21-80) of VNIISPK breeding in the amount of 66 hybrid seedlings. The parent forms of this family were selected as sources of valuable economical and breeding characters. The variety Belaya Potapenko has a dessert taste of berries, and the selected seedling 1426-21-80 was taken due to its productivity and long racemes. The economical and biological characters of the hybrid seedlings were studied according to the “Program and methods of fruit, berry and nut crops variety investigation”, section “Currants, gooseberry and their hybrids” (1999).Results. The progeny of the crossing combination Belaya Potapenko x SS 1426-21-80 is characterized by high adaptability to soil and climatic conditions of cultivation that provides good development of the seedlings and their high productivity. When crossing white-fruit Belaya Potapenko with redfruit SS 1426-21-80, seedlings with white berries are absent in the offspring, which indicates that the paternal original form is homozygous for the dominant gene that controls the red color of the berries. Hybridological analysis showed that with medium weight of berries of parental forms, the manifestation of this trait in the offspring increased, the share of large-fruited seedlings was 18-37%, depending on the year of the study. The taste estimation of the off-spring of this family showed that a great amount of the seedlings had an intermediate sweet and sour taste, part of hybrids inherited sour taste from the paternal original parent. The hybrid family is valuable for the output of highly productive large-fruited seedlings with long racemes. Re-hybridization of the best seedlings with sources of high taste of berries is necessary to improve the taste.