Raspberry breeding and agronomy for mild winter climates

Breeding programs are important for obtaining new cultivars that can meet the growing demands of raspberry consumers and climatic challenges. The aim of most raspberry breeding programs is to obtain a new cultivar that has good fruit quality and high productivity, resistant to the most important pests and diseases and well adapted to the conditions where it will be grown. Although all these goals are important for the success of a program, production systems must also be considered. In mild winter conditions there are several possible raspberry production systems. One of the most commonly used is the primocane-fruiting type cropped during the autumn followed by the floricane spring crop. Other systems are possible and can be explored under the genetic diversity observed in breeding programs developed in such conditions. In Portugal there is a recent raspberry breeding program, between the National Research Institute and a private enterprise, Beirabaga located at Alentejo southwest coast. From the diversity observed in this program the following will be discussed: the opportunity and possibility to develop breeding lines for various production systems for mild winter climate with different dynamics like long-cane systems with floricane-fruiting types, and with tip-fruiters, primocane-fruiting types that grow laterals back to the base of the cane during the first year and evergreen plants that can produce during the winter.