Fruit characteristics of fire blight resistant F₁ pear population

Fire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora is the most devastating bacterial disease of pear. Disease effects all upper and under organs of host plants and kills whole plant. There is no certain management practice against this disease and chemicals used for fire blight are harmfull to environment, animal and human health. The lack of effective solution to the disease and the shift of the consuming tendency toward organic products lead to the usage of resistant rootstocks and cultivars in controlling the disease. However, all over the world the number of pear cultivar exhibiting high-resistance to fire blight and superior fruit quality parameters, is rather low. For this purpose, breeding projects TOVAG 106O719 and TOVAG 110O938 (TUBITAK) were initiated in order to develop new pear cultivars combining resistance to fire blight and superior fruit characteristics. With this aim different hybridization combinations were carried out. F₁ hybrid population was artificially inoculated with different strains of Erwinia amylovora. Hybrids that bear fruit belong to group “A” (Very low susceptibility) were analyzed. Superior hybrids were detected via weighted ranking method by evaluating some characters as eating quality, fruit attractiveness, size, soluble solids content, firmness and rustiness, using two years data. Three genotypes were found superior. As a conclusion of the study, registration of the genotypes which are found to be superior is thought to contribute to fire blight disease management and pear cultivation.