GENERATIVE POTENTIAL AND FRUIT QUALITY OF PROMISING RED RASPBERRY SEEDLINGS

Generative potential and fruit quality of seedlings obtained by open pollination of ‘Meeker’ yellow clone were investigated in this study. From over a 100 seedlings, 14 accessions with red fruits were selected on the “Radmilovac” of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade. Among selected seedlings, genotypes II-2-2P, I-7-3 and I-3-2P expressed very high generative potential parameters, like the standard cultivar ‘Meeker’. The highest fruit weight and soluble solids content had seedling I-3-2P (3.50 g; 12.37%, respectively), whereas the highest titratable acidity was recorded in seedling II-3-PP (1.03%) and the highest total sugar content in seedling I-6-2 (9.07%). The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among selected genotypes for numerous properties, while LSD test was used for single traits testing. Cluster analysis showed a considerable diversity in the raspberry seedlings where length of fruiting laterals was a determinant criterion for genotypes clustering. It distinguished seedlings into two distinct groups; the first one involved nine genotypes and standard cultivar, whereas the second one was consisted of five seedlings.