NEW CULTIVARS WITH LARGE FRUIT AND HIGH PRODUCTIVITY IN ACTINIDIA ARGUTA, 'SAE-HAN', 'DAE-SUNG', AND 'CHIL-BO'

Three new Korean cultivars of bower actinidia (A. arguta (Sieb. & Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq.) with large fruits and high productivity have been developed. They were chosen from 168 candidate accessions from wild populations collected in 12 locations and spanning 4 provinces in Korea. Some characteristics required for commercial cultivation were considered important. These include the fruit length, fruit width, fruit weight and individual clone yields with observations based on 6 years of measurements. Finally, the chosen three cultivars are named ‘Sae-Han’, ‘Dae-Sung’, and ‘Chil-Bo’. These cultivars have larger fruit size, heavier fruit and higher productivity than that achieved by the average of other candidate accessions. Among the three cultivars, the ‘Sae-Han’ was the most promising cultivar for large fruit size, fruit weight and high productivity per plant.