Progetto MAS.PES per il miglioramento genetico del pesco : criteri di selezione e individuazione di ideotipi di riferimento

An apricot and peach breeding program has been started in the south-eastern Po Valley (Italy), funded by both public and private funds, growers organizations among them. The program is aimed at the introduction of new cultivars adapted to the climatic conditions of the region, other than disease resistance and outstanding fruit quality traits. The projects is operating at three levels. The first one is the availability of a large peach collection, including both commercial cultivars and old accessions to be employed as parents or for comparative evaluation of the breeding stock. The second level is the breeding operation to obtain the progenies to be grown in the field. The third level is the setting of the selection criteria to screen the progenies in search of superior phenotypes. To this aim, ideotypes have been designed for tree growth, fruit type (size, shape, blush, texture) and chemical contents (total soluble solids and acidity, in particular). Reference cultivars have also been listed for comparative evaluation in the final field tests.