Kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.) breeding studies and new cultivar candidates in Turkey

Kiwifruit was introduced into Turkey in the late 1980s. The production of kiwifruit is increasing every year; it has now passed 40,000 t. It is likely that production will increase further in the near future because of the large number of newly established kiwifruit orchards. However, almost all of the kiwifruit cultivated in Turkey is of 'Hayward' cultivar. For this reason, kiwifruit breeding studies in Turkey with the search for alternative cultivars were first initiated in Ataturk Horticultural Central Research Institute in 2008. This project is still only one study conducted on kiwifruit breeding in the country. The breeding study started with seedlings obtained from cultivars 'Hort16A', 'Jintao', 'Hayward' and 'Topstar' and genotype 17684. In phenological observations made within the population, until 2016, 244 female and 299 male genotypes were determined. HO-8, B-13, B-19, B-20, B-25, B-36, J-284 and TH-9 genotypes were selected as cultivar candidates among female genotypes. All cultivar candidates except TH-9 are earlier than 'Hayward' and have yellow fruit flesh. Also cultivar candidate J-284 is attractive, with red colour around the core. Cultivar candidates B-20, B-13 and TH-9 were found to be superior to average fruit weight. The registration process has started for cultivar candidate B-19 ('Ilkaltin'). Also, sensory analyses have been done for 3 years with the prominent cultivar candidates.