Comparative investigations of new Bulgarian plum cultivars

Abstract

The new cultivars ‘Plovdivska renkloda’, ‘Sineva’ and ‘Ulpiya’ surpass the source parent cultivars in a number of important characteristics – fruit ripening period, fruit weight, relative stone share, fruit skin colouration. Along with bearing large and uniform fruits, the major advantages of the three new cultivars are the very good taste qualities of their fruits. In that sense, the fruits of ‘Plovdivska renkloda’ and ‘Sineva’ are especially suitable for fresh consumption. A great advantage of ‘Plovdivska renkloda’ is its self-fertility, a characteristic that is not inherent to the other Reine Cludes. Good pollinators of the new cultivars are ‘Stanley’, ‘Čačanska Lepotica’ and ‘Reine Claude d’Altan’. The three cultivars show good compatibility with the seedling rootstock Prunus cerasifera and they demonstrate good resistance to winter and late spring frosts. Grown under irrigation conditions, the new cultivars would demonstrate higher values of the biometric characteristics of their fruits and they would bear higher yields. Thanks to their good characteristics, the new cultivars were included in the updated breeding programme for establishing F2 hybrid progeny.