STRAWBERRY BREEDING IN YUGOSLAVIA

The work on breeding new strawberry cultivars in Yugoslavia has been conducted exclusively at the Fruit and Viticulture Research Institute at Cacak. The breeding work has been in progress since 1959, using mainly the method of planned hybridization. The main objective was to breed new strawberry cultivars of differing ripening time, which would have large and firm fruits with high fruit colour and with excellent flavour and aroma. The plants should be high yielding and resistant to both biotic and abiotic factors.

Over the 30-year period, some 370 parental combinations with 63 cultivars and hybrids as parents were used. The most common parents used were as follows: Belrubi, Georg Solwedel, 45/7, Macherauchs Frühernte, Madame Moutot, Senga Gigana, Senga Precosa, Senga Sengana, Surprise des Halles, Talisman and Wädenswil 8. Over 337,500 hybrid seeds were produced and 27,600 hybrid seedlings were raised. Some 210 promising hybrids were chosen and selected for further trials, three of which were named and released as cultivars - one being very early (Cacanska Rana) and the other two early (45/7 and Cacanska Krupna), as well as a number of elite hybrids (II/1/87, II/2/87, II/3/87, X/1/87 and X/2/87) which are currently under test and some of them are expected to be named as new cultivars.