New Table Grape Hybrids Developed by Breeding and Embryo Rescue in Spain

During the last 15 years, a program of table grape breeding has been carried out in the IMIDA (Murcia, Spain). The main objective of this program is to obtain new seedless cultivars of outstanding quality, few technical management requirements, and a wide ripening period. The breeding has been made by the classic crossing between seeded and seedless cultivars, as well as by direct crossing between seedless cultivars followed by embryo rescue. We have obtained 15,000 hybrids. In this work, we present the characterization of five hybrids selected for their quality and adaptation to different producing areas of the Murcia region. These five hybrids were obtained from crosses between local cultivars ('Napoleon', 'Dominga', 'Ohanes') and commercial seedless cultivars, as well as by directly crossing seedless hybrids obtained from our programme. The selected lines are: 03-121-26, an early ripening seedless hybrid, with a light Muscat and crispy flavour, yellow berry sized over 18 mm; 03-672-101, a very late ripening seedless hybrid, yellow and crispy, size over 18 mm, suited to long storage; 01-25-1 a mid to late ripening, very crisp black seedless table grape, berry size over 17 mm; 03-674-5, a red, mid to late maturing seeded hybrid, similar to Red Globe but crispier; 01-144-7, a very late maturing seeded hybrid, very black and very crispy berry, over 20 mm in size, with very good keeping quality on the plant.