New Japanese plum (Prunus salicina L.) breeding 
program in Murcia (Spain)

D. Ruiz, J. Egea, A. Guevara-Gazquez, F. García, A. Carrillo-Navarro, J. Cos-Terrer
Spain is one of the main plum producing countries worldwide. Particularly noteworthy is the good adaptation of the Japanese plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) 
cultivars to our climatic conditions and thus the possibility to grow early ripening 
cultivars that can be harvested in May and June. However, plum cultivation in Spain has a number of problems that need to be addressed urgently. A Japanese plum 
breeding programme was started in 2011 in Murcia (Spain) jointly by CEBAS-CSIC and IMIDA. Early ripening (May-June), high fruit quality, self-compatibility and resistance to sharka virus (PPV) are the main objectives for the new cultivars. A collection of 
interesting commercial cultivars of Japanese plum has been established and they are being evaluated for key characters such as chilling requirements, identification of self(in)compatibility genotypes (S-alleles), fruit quality traits as well as the level of resistance/susceptibility to sharka virus. By 2015, around 3,000 seedlings from more than thirty different crosses had been generated and planted in the experimental 
orchard. The first phenotyping has been carried out in 2015.
Ruiz, D., Egea, J., Guevara-Gazquez, A., García, F., Carrillo-Navarro, A. and Cos-Terrer, J. (2017). New Japanese plum (Prunus salicina L.) breeding 
program in Murcia (Spain). Acta Hortic. 1172, 123-1234
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1172.22
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1172.22
early ripening, fruit quality, Sharka resistance, self-(in)compatibility
English

Acta Horticulturae