Tropical fruit breeding in Taiwan: technology and cultivars

Taiwan's scientists have bred and released a number of fruit cultivars last decade, including papaya, Indian jujube, pineapple, wax apple, guava, mango, lychee, sugar apple pitaya and carambola. These new cultivars provide a richer choice of healthy products and better fruit quality that enrich the food supply for Taiwanese. The most preferred characteristics for varietal development of fruit are targeted at enjoyable flavor, comfortable total soluble solids (TSS), thick flesh, disease resistance, longer shelf life, and vigor growth. For some of them, color of flesh or skin, high yielding potential, and rich nutrient are also important. Recently, high resistance (tolerance) to pests and diseases are emphasized in research. Solutions to the problem have been found and used with good result in the farmer orchards. Then, cultivation techniques were advanced for unseasonal fruit production of wax apple, guava and sugar apple. The fruits can be produced in their season and off-season, a year-round production. The forcing culture technique was used for short breeding program at least 2-3 years, for example covering with black nylon net, girdling, flooding, root cutting, grafting and fertilizers techniques. We are continuously releasing new cultivars of fruits and transferring technologies to bring the efforts of the R&D program for outputs into outcomes practice in Taiwan.