The Breeding Program

Better3Fruit has a high throughput of new seedlings and takes a professional approach towards breeding novel varieties.

Hard-fruit species are highly heterozygous. This implies that the discovery of a novel variety with superior characteristics requires the production and evaluation of many seedlings. At Better3Fruit we are geared towards handling large numbers. Every year, about 30000 seedlings are produced from crosses between elite parents. Increasingly, these parents are products of our own breeding program. Disease resistance is an important breeding target. A greenhouse scab resistance test is used to eliminate seedlings with insufficient natural resistance, reducing the number of seedlings actually planted in the field to around 10000 per year.

Seedlings are grown over two seasons in order to yield mature budwood. Each seedling is then grafted onto a rootstock and grafted trees are grown to produce fruit.

During three successive fruiting seasons, each tree is evaluated by a team of specialists. Selections with good taste and high eye-appeal at harvest are further evaluated for storage potential and shelf life. All evaluations are performed under commercial conditions.

A well-designed set of parameters is recorded in a standardized and consistent way for each selection throughout the whole evaluation period. The major quality traits (firmness, juiciness, crispness, sweetness, acidity and aroma) are fed into a database at harvest and at different points in time during cold storage and shelf life. At the end of each harvest season, the database is searched for superior selections which are then advanced to the next (second) selection stage.

In the second stage, each selection is propagated on rootstocks to produce about 10 trees which are grown to maturity. Again, the selections are thoroughly evaluated during at least three successive seasons. Selections surviving the stringent criteria with respect to quality are further tested for productivity and general agronomical performance. In addition to the objective and scientific evaluation, international industry experts such as tree nurserymen and fruit marketers are involved in determining which selections are most suitable for commercialization.

The most exciting selections are subjected to consumer tests, in collaboration with sensory analysis specialists