INCREASING FRUIT QUALITY OF PEACHES AND NECTARINES: THE MAIN GOALS OF ISF-FO (ITALY)

In 1980, the Forlì branch of the Istituto Sperimentale per la Frutticoltura started a breeding program with the precise aim of improving fruit quality in peach. The main objectives pursued and the results obtained were: a) to join the excellent flavor of the traditional white-fleshed Italian varieties with the good commercial characteristics of cultivars from USA. ‘Alba’, ‘Bea’, ‘Neve’ and ‘Crizia’ have been already released, and several promising selections are under advanced evaluation. Though of high quality standard, the selected material does not match the high flesh firmness with the good flavor of the old Italian varieties, presumably because flesh firmness plays a role in determining the fruit flavor; b) to introduce the “stony hard” character in genotypes that meet high horticultural standard and have melting flesh fruits. Up to now, the best result obtained is the selection IFF 331 that, together with the “stony hard” trait, has very good fruit color and size; c) to increase ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) content, which is generally poor in peach fruit. We started with a few genotypes characterized by relatively high ascorbic acid content and good flavor. In the progeny derived from the first crosses, a wide range of variability was found for color, fruit size and Vitamin C content; d) to obtain early ripening peach and nectarine cultivars with stones that are small and unsusceptible to split-pit. At the moment, few of the seedlings exhibited the desired characteristics. Moreover, all the F2 nectarines were sensitive to skin cracking and surface speckling.