Thursday, August 11, 2016: 11:45 AM
Savannah 1 Room (Sheraton Hotel Atlanta)
The raspberry breeding program in British Columbia is focused on the development of machine-harvestable floricane-fruiting red raspberries for the processing industry. In recent years, growers and processors have expressed a desire for pushing the summer raspberry season earlier to reduce pressure from Spotted-winged Drosophila, as well as to reduce competition for space on processing lines with the rapidly growing blueberry industry. To better understand the feasibility of working toward the goal of developing new cultivars that are earlier than the current standard ‘Meeker’, we reviewed 20 years of data from yield trials conducted by the program and found a significant trend toward lower yield in early season selections than in later season selections. Further analyses showed that ripening season is likely to be highly heritable, but also showed a significant bias toward selections being later ripening than what would be predicted by their parents. Finally, most of the best sources of root rot tolerance in the program have a similar or later season than ‘Meeker’. These data suggest that moving the program toward earliness will likely take at least 2-3 generations of concerted effort, that selection for large fruit size is likely to be a key part of maintaining yield in new early season selections, and that identifying and incorporating new sources of earliness, particularly those with root rot tolerance, will be a significant aid towards this goal.