The Estonian blackcurrant cultivar ‘Elmar’

In Estonia, blackcurrant breeding has a long tradition dating back to the beginning of last century, stimulated in 2000 with financial support from the government. The aim of the program is to produce cultivars that are winter-hardy, resistant to gooseberry mildew (Sphaerotheca mors-uvae (Schw.) Berk.) and gall mite (Cecidophyopsis ribis Westw.), well suited to machine harvesting with good yield and fruit quality. The cultivar trial was conducted from 2012 to 2015 at the Polli Horticultural Research Centre of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, in South-Estonia (58°7’26”N, 25°32’43”E). It included the Estonian cultivar ‘Elmar’ and four other cultivars (‘Intercontinental’, ‘Pamyat Vavilova’, ‘Titania’ and ‘Ben Alder’) which were used for the trial as the standard cultivars. Their phenological traits, winter hardiness, resistance to diseases and pests (expressed in scores 1-9), number of flowers and fruits per cluster, flower and premature fruit drop %, yield (kg bush^‑1), and weight of fruit were determined. Fruits were analyzed for anthocyanins and polyphenols. ‘Elmar’ was a good and stable yielding cultivar, exceeding other test cultivars and had big fruits. ‘Elmar’ exceeded the other testing cultivars in terms of the number of flowers and fruits per cluster. The content of polyphenols and anthocyanin of ‘Elmar’ was at the same level as that of the cultivar ‘Titania’ but lower than that of the standard cultivar ‘Ben Alder’.