Blackcurrant breeding for high sensory qualities of fruits – new releases from Ukraine

O. Yareshchenko, Y. Tereshchenko, L. Shevchuk, I. Grynyk, I. Babiichuk
Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.), one of the most important soft fruit crops in Ukraine, is grown both for processing and fresh market. According to a rising world-wide trend of increasing fresh fruit consumption there is a market demand for dessert or versatile cultivars. In the middle of the 2000s a new breeding program was established at the Institute of Horticulture NAAS (Kyiv, Ukraine) aimed to obtain blackcurrant cultivars with high sensory qualities of fruits. Identified sources and donors of dessert fruit taste (‘Yuvileina Kopania’, ‘Sofiivska’, ‘Selechenskaya-2’ and clones) were involved in crossings. Promising clones were selected and further evaluated by key traits in the period of 2010-2018. Two cultivars – early season ‘Yednist’ and mid-late ‘Chornii Dessert’ – were released in 2015 and 2018 accordingly, both obtained national PBR in 2022. ‘Yednist’ mostly focused to amateur market. Fruits of ‘Chornii Dessert’ (Black Dessert) have an outstanding dessert taste, large size and attractiveness, high level of ascorbic acid and polyphenols, good shelf life. Plants are vigorous, upright, set mid to long strigs, produce good stable yield, could be harvested mechanically or by hand, resistant to main fungal diseases (powdery mildew, anthracnosis, leaf spot), slightly susceptible to blackcurrant gall mite. Both cultivars have high nutritional value of fruits and generally meet market requirements.
Yareshchenko, O., Tereshchenko, Y., Shevchuk, L., Grynyk, I. and Babiichuk, I. (2024). Blackcurrant breeding for high sensory qualities of fruits – new releases from Ukraine. Acta Hortic. 1388, 37-40
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1388.4
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1388.4
blackcurrant cultivars, fresh consumption, dessert taste, yield, nutritional value
English

Acta Horticulturae