Apple is known as the king of temperate fruits and is cultivated worldwide. The common apple, Malus domestica, is diploid with 34 chromosomes, though some varieties are triploid. Apples originated in Southwest Asia and belong to the Rosaceae family. Major apple producing regions are temperate. India's Himachal Pradesh is known as the Apple Bowl of India. Apples have a long storage life and sorbitol is their major sugar. Through conventional breeding techniques like introduction, selection, hybridization and mutation breeding, many new apple varieties have been developed with traits like disease resistance, early maturity, and adaptation to different climatic conditions. Biotechnology is also being used to develop new apple varieties.

2. Apple is known as king of temperate fruits /
symbol of health / premier fruit of the world
Cultivated apple Malus X domestica are
diploids (2n =34) and few are triploids
(2n=51) and ancestor of it is Malus
sylvestris
Apple originated from South western Asia
and belongs to family Rosaceae sub family
pomoideae
It is a deciduous fruit tree mostly grown in
temperate region of the world

3.  Himachal Pradesh is
known as Apple bowl
of India
Among the fruit apple
has long storage life
Major sugar present in
apple is sorbitol
Type of fruit is Pome
Edible portion is fleshy
thalamus (mesocarp)

4. Cultivated apple is functional diploids
(2n=2x=34)
Ancestor of cultivated apple is Malus
sylvestries
Sucker free species Malus siversii
Apomixis species Malus sieboldii
Indigenous to Himalayas : Malus baccata
var himalacia , M. sikkimmensis
Crab apples cultivated as ornamental trees
for their attractive flowers and fruits

5. Resistant to scab : M. floribunda , M.
atrosanguina
Resistant to powdhery mildew and Codling
moth : M. zumi
Resistant to wooly apple aphid : M.
hupehensis
Apple almost have a chilling requirement of
1000 hrs at or below 7.2 ⁰C temperature ,
low chilling variety required < 800 hrs below
7 ⁰C

6. In India ,11-33%
pollinizing trees are
recommended for
regular cropping
Optimum temperature
for pollen germination
and fruit setting is 21.1-
26.7 ⁰C but in summer
the av temp is around
21-24 ⁰C during the
active growth

7. GERMPLASM RESOURCES
• Malus collection has 6734 total accessions, of
which 5226 are trees in the field and 1508 are
seedlots
• Good collection of Germplasm has been collected in
19 research centre out of which 11 are located in
North West Himalayan region such as :
 NBPGR , Phagli ( New Delhi)
 CITH, Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir)
 IARI , New Delhi
 Fruit Research centre , Shalimar
 Hill Fruit Research centre , in Chaubattia and
Chakrata , U.P
 Himachal Agricultural University , H.P

8. Important Categories of Apple Germplasm
categories Important cultivar
Non spur type Tydeman’s worcestor, Stark Red
Rome, Skyline supreme, Red
Delicious , Rose Red Delicious ,
Akane , Red Baron
Spur type Starkrimson, Sky spur, Mc spur, Spur
type, Golden Delicious, Bisbee, Silver
spur, Gold spur, Red Delicious
Low chilling Vared, Anna, Michael, Schlomit,
Maayan, H-1, Tropical Beauty, Rome
Beauty, Kidd’s Orange Red
Scab Resistant Star Prize, Prima, Priscilla, Quinte,
Liberty

9. BREEDING OBJECTIVE
 Since , apple is a composite tree consisting of
rootstock and scion , there is also need to
develop rootstock with the aim to manipulate
growth , suitable for a specific location as well
as for good reproductive ability .
To involved varieties red in colour with early
maturity, high yield, superior dessert and
storage quality and resistant to diseases(scab)
and pests

10. ROOTSTOCK BREEDING
 To develop woolly apple aphid resistant
rootstock using a Northern Spy as a source
of resistance
 To focussed on productiveness and tree
size control
 Adaptation to soil and pest problems
 It shows considerable resistance to crown
rot and winter hardy like P-1, P-2 , P-16 , P-
22 from M-4 X Common Antonovka

11.  Recent rootstock research comprises :
i. Development of new dwarfing, winter hardy,
efficiently cropping clones, using cross
breeding technique
ii. Evaluation of recently developed dwarfing
rootstocks of Czechslovakia and USSR origin.
The present breeding programme is with primary
focus to study the genetics on heritability of
vigour, rooting, feathering, earliness of bud break
and efficiency of cropping.

12. Evaluation research is mainly aimed to test
the efficiency of propagation, influence on the
growth of a cultivar, precocity of bearing,
cropping efficiency and resistance to pests
and diseases

13. Special features of rootstock and its
characteristic
Category Rootstocks Features
Dwarfing M9 Suitable for HDP in flat and
irrigated areas only
Semi - dwarf M4, M7,
M106,M24
HDP , Resistant to wooly apple
aphid
Semi-
vigorous
M111,
MM104
Drought tolerant and rest. to
wooly aphid
Vigorous Merton 793 Early fruiting, rest. to wooly
aphid and collar rot
Ultra dwarf M27 Suitable for HDP

14. • MI series (Merton Immune) released from
East Malling Research Station (EMRS) ,
Kent, England
• MM series (Malling Merton) released from
John Innes Instituites, England
• MM series specifically bred for wooly apple
aphid
• All rootstocks of MM series are rest. To
wooly apple aphid
• East Malling Long Ashton (EMLA) series of
rootstock is rest. to viruses

15. BREEDING OF SCION CULTIVAR
• Fruit appearance -fruits should have
attractive good colour, a regular shape and
a skin free from russet eg : Northern spy, cv
like Jonagold and Elstar
• Fruit size – 65 mm diameter is generally
accepted, but is the aim for regular fruit size
of 65-75 mm dia eg : triploid var like Crispin
, Holstein , Jonagold etc
• Eating quality – prefers cv having medium
acid (3.4-3.6)% and high sugar content(14-
16)%

16. • Fruit colour
Europe – Golden delicious, jonagold, Elstar
North American –Golden delicious, Red
delicious, Mc Intosh (low acid/ low sugar and
good culinary apples)
India –Red delicious, Royal delicious
• Yield – it should have high yield cv like
greensleeves, jupiter, Romus-2, Himekami
• Pest and disease resistance viz Malus
floribunda, Malus zumi, Malus hupehensis.
• Early maturity and have long shelf life

17. • Cold hardiness – Honeycrisp, Lobo, Katjo,
Mantet, Fireside, Wealthy, Yellow
Transparent
• Winter chilling requirements – Anna, Ein
shemer , schlor , Mollie delicious, Adina
• Season of flowering – late flowering
considered as the best as it avoid from
disastrous spring frost
• Duration of juvenile period
• Season of ripening

18. • Compact columnar cultivars , new
cultivar which has been selected
at East Malling can be grown as
natural cordons without pruning
• Mutation breeding , isolation of
spontaneous somatic mutations
in apple has play a significant role
in the production of new apple
cultivar eg Dutch plantation of
Elstar shows more coloured than
its mother tree

19. Limitation in Conventional Breeding
Slow and lengthy
Long juvenile period
Self incompatibility
Polygenic control of most of the
horticultural important traits
Large population required to recover
recombinants

20. Breeding Technique
 Floral biology
o Flowers of apple cultivars and seedling vary
considerably in shape, size and in colour
from white to deep pink
o They are borne in cymose clusters on fairly
short pedicels, usually on spur type growth
but in some instances from terminal or
lateral buds of the previous season’s growth
o The typical flower consists of 5 petals, calyx
of 5 sepals, about 20 stamens and pistil
which divides into 5 styles

21. o Ovary has 5 carpels ,
each usually containing
2 ovules , so max seed
content is 10 but some
cv have more
o Liberty and Northern
spy usually have 12 to
18 seeds and ottawa 3
rootstocks often has 20
to 30 seeds

22. Pollination
o Cross pollination mainly done by
insect particularly bees
o Some cultivars act as pollinizers are :
Tydeman’s Early Worcestor : One of the earliest
varieties and act as pollinizer for Delicious varieties.
Lord Lambourne : Hybrid between James Greeves x
Worcestor Peermans’s.
Granny Smith, Red Gold, Golden Delicious Yellow
Newton, Mc Intosh , Early Shanburry , Winter Banana,
Starkspur Golden , Golden Spur

23. Methods of Crop Improvement
• Introduction
• Selection
• Hybridisation
• Mutation
• Biotechnology

24. Methods of Improvement
Introduction
In apple lots of emphasis laid on introduction
and selection during last decades. Apples are
introduced for different purpose such as :
a) spur type cultivar - At regional research
station , Mashobra (H.P), 12 varieties are
introduced through NBPGR New Delhi in 1980
Red spur delicious, Golden spur delicious,
Oregon spur, Red chief, Miller, Sturdee spur,
white spur , Stark crimson

25. b) Colour spots – Royal red , Vance delicious.
Top red, Skyline supreme, Red Delicious
c) Low chilling variety – Introduced through
NBPGR to RRS , Phagi , Shimla
Vared, Michael , Tropical beauty, Parlin
beauty, Mayan, Schlomit, Hybrid-1
d) Scab resistant var – Prima , Priscilla ,
Liberty, Florina, Macfree, Freedom, Coop-12
e) Early maturing var – Yandik onskoe ,
Papisonka canninga

26. • Introduced through NBPGR , New-Delhi, in
apple growing states
• Of the scab resistant variety co-op-12 has
shown better performance as an Early sub-
acidic variety whereas Florina promised as a
coloured sweet varieties
• However none of these compared
favourably well with popular delicious and
its commercial spots , it is therefore logical
that some of these tracts are incorporated
in our commercial variety

27. • Sufficient attempt have not been made to
introduced low chilling apple cv in N.Indian
plains and South India .
• From early introductions cv such as Tropical
beauty and Perlin beauty were found to be
best w.r.t. productivity and fruit quality
• Some cv of Sub – Tropical apples are
Maayan , Michael, Schlomit and Vared
where introduction from Israel and are
under evaluation

28.  Selection
• In Horticultural Experimental Station (TNAU)
in Kodaikanal selected 1 variety i,e KKL-1
called as Kodaikanal beauty , this is a
selection from Parlin beauty
• Many of existing commercial cv which
originated as chance seedlings are Golden
Delicious , Baldwin and Granny Smith

29. 2. Hybridisation
Apple improvement work
has been going on
a) The Regional Fruit
Research Station ,
Mashobra, H.P
b) F.R.S. , Shalimar, J and K
c) Horticulture and
Experimental Training
centre , Chaubattia , U.P

31. Resulting in a no. of released of new varieties,
work was initiated in Kashmir (1956) to
combine high dessert qualityof delicious
group with good keeping quality of Ambri.
• Two hybrids such as Lal Ambri and Sunehri
were released
• Similarly work has been also initiated in H.P.
(1960) as a result hybrids Ambred ,
Ambstarking and Ambrich have been
developed . Subsequently hybrid, Ambroyal
was also developed

32. • Work on apple improvement was started at
Chaubattia (1970 ) to developed Early
maturing cultivar with good dessert quality
• Two promising hybrids were involved
Chaubattia Princess and Chaubattia
Anupam
• Some crosses were also made to developed
scab resistant cv
• Two outstanding hybrids Firdous and
Shireen were developed to adaptation

33. • Variety developed with parentage and
important characters are as follows :
1. Jammu and Kashmir
Lal Ambri – Red Delicious X Ambri , Ambri
with red colour
Sunehri – Ambri X Golden Delicious , Ambri
with colour of Golden Delicious
2. Himachal Pradesh
Ambred – Red Delicious X Ambri-57 ,
keeping quality good, low incidence of
powdhery mildew , soothy blotch and scab

34. Ambstarking – Starking Delicious X Ambri-
81 , tolerant to scab
Ambroyal – Starking Delicious X Ambri-84 ,
semi dwarf tree , semi spur type and having
good dessert quality
Ambrich – Richared X Ambri-15 , semi
dwarf, semi spur, good dessert quality,
tolerant to scab

35. 3. Chaubattia , U.P
Chaubattia Princess – Red Delicious X Early
Shunberry , early ripe in last week of June ,
fruit with deep red streaks on pale
background, very sweet and good keeping
quality.
Chaubattia Anupam – Red Delicious X Early
Shunberry, ripen in second week of July ,
fruit skin with shiny red streakes with red
blush on pale background

36. Inheritance of traits
 A no. of important horticultural traits are
ccontrolled by major genes and therefore
incorporated in breeding programme for the
development of new cvs
 large no. of important characters of apple
under polygene control
 Powdhery mildew single major genes PL1 and
PL2 , M. zumi and M. robusta
 M. hupehensis has been reported to transmit
resistance to woolly apple aphid and
resistance to codling moth is incorporated
from M. zumi

37. Mutation
 A bud sport is a mutation arising in a cell from
which a bud developed
 It affects growth habit particularly the spur or
compact type which produce compact or
dwarfish
 This is the basis for bud selection to maintain
the integrity of the cultivar
 The rate of single gene mutations can be
increased by irradiation with X- ray, Gamma ray
and thermal neutrons
 Bud sport – due to mutation , Red allister/ Aed
Elster ,natural mutant of allister

38. • Vance Delicious : Bud mutant of Delicious.
• Top Red : Bud sport of Shot Well Delicious
• Skyline Supreme Delicious : Bud mutant of
Starking Delicious.
• Gold Spur Delicious : Bud mutant of Golden
Delicious. This variety is recommended as
pollinizer for all spur types.
• Red Spur Delicious : It is a variant tree in
Starking Delicious orchard.
• Red Chief : Bud sport of Delicious

39. Sterility and Incompatibility
 These are the two main causes of
unfruitfulness in apple
 Apples has Gametophytic incompatibility
whereby the pollen tube growth is arrested
in the style
Variety like Cox’s orange pippin , Golden
russet and Northern spy

40. Apomixis
 Facultative apomixis is characteristic of a
number of Malus spp that are probably of
hybrid origin, but does not appear to occur
among the cultivated apple
CULTIVARS PLOIDY LEVEL
M. sikkimensis triplod
M. sargentii tetraploid
M. Coronaria , M.
hupehensis, M. lancefolia, M.
toringoides
Triplod, tetraploid
M. sieboldii Diploid, triploid, tetraploid, pentaploid

41. Parthenocarpy
 The two apetalous cvs bear annual crops of
parthenocarpic seedless fruit but produce
seeded fruits following hand pollination .
Cvs such as Spencer Seedless and Ohio - 3

42. Biotechnology
 Protoplast culture – M9 and Sparten
 Moleculars markers – Rome Beauty cross
with White Angel using RAPD
Transformation – Greensleeves , Royal Gala
, etc

43. Special Features of Apple Varieties
1. Yellow colour variety- Golden Yellow
delicious , Lodi , Grimes Golden
2. Green colour variety – Granny Smith ,
Tippin , Gold Russet , Lord derby
3. Cooking variety – White dotted red ,
Howget wonder , Baldwin
4. Lowest chilling variety – Dorcett (100 hr)
5. Processing variety – Tropical beauty ,
Parlin beauty

44. 6) Intergeneric hybrid – Pamapples
( Pear X Apple ) developed by Ellis Marks
(1952)in John Innes Centre
7) Resistant to woolly aphid – Northern spy
8) Natural mutant – Red Elstar ( Parent cv
Elstar)

45. 9) Ambri – Indigeneous
variety of India
10) Gala and Fuzi – Sub-
tropical varieties of India
11) Varieties tolerant to
Alternate bearing – Gala
, Rome , Pink lady ,
Finger gold
a) gala b) Fuzi
c) pink –
lady lady
lady

46. Recommended varieties of apple in different
states
Himachal Pradesh
EARLY
Red Junet, Delicious, Stark Earliest, Red Astrakhan,
King of Pippins
MID EARLY
Red Delicious, Royal Delicious, Golden Delicious, Rome
Beauty, Rich-a-Red, Vance Delicious, Baldwin
LATE
Rus Pippin, Granny smith, Winter Banana, Golden
Delicious, Yellow Newton

47. Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh
EARLY
Red Astrakhan, Beauty of Bath, Early Shan burry,
Summer Golden, Pippin, Fenny Benoni
MID EARLY
King of Tom king, King of Pippins, Winter Banana,
King David, Jonathan, Red delicious, Mc Intosh, Cox’s
Orange, Pippin, Rich-a- Red
LATE
Rick’s Pleasant, Yellow Newton, Esopursa Burgs,
Rome Beauty, Rymer, Buckingham, Golden Delicious

48. Jammu and Kashmir
EARLY
Irish peach, Benoni, Starkrimson
MID EARLY
American Mother, Razakwar, Jonathan, Cox’s Orange
Pippin, Red Gold, Queens Apple, Roma Beauty,
Scarlet Siberian
LATE
Apirouge, Kerry Pippin, King Pippin, Sunheri
Chamure, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Yellow
Newton, Ambri Baldwin

49. Adams pearmain Arkansas black
Arlet swiss gourmet Ashmeads Golden gala

50. Baldwin Belle de Boskoop
Black Oxford
Blue pearman
Braeburn Cornish gilliflower

51. Cortland Cox orange pippins Crispin mutsu
Duchess EmpireGranny smith

52. Fameuse Freedom Fuji Gala
Golden delicious Golden Dorsett
HolsteinGraveinstein

53. Honeycrisp Idared Jonagold Jonathan
King David Upenn Lady SweetLiberty Lodi Macoun
Maiden Blush Mc Intosh Northern Spy Ozark Gold Paradise

54. Pink Lady Pound Ralls Genet
Rambo Ramey york Red Astrachan
Apple Red Delicious
Apple Red Cort Reinett
Rhode Island Greening
Rome Beauty Roxburry russet

55. Seek no further Smoke House Sops of wine Spigold
Spitzenburg Starkey Starking Wealthy
Williams pride Winesap Winter Banana Wolf river

56. Yellow Newton Pippin
Yellow Transparent Golden russ
Sheepnose
Knobbed Cider
DabeyFranklin
Jubilee

57. Chenango strawberry
Fukunisluki Freyberg
Kandil sinap
Doctor
Lamb Abbey Pearmain
Black twig

58. Future Thrust :
i. Improving productivity and quality of produce
from existing area under horticultural crops
ii. Improving supply of improved varieties
iii. Enhancement of exports
iv. Strengthening infrastructure for programme
implementation and database
v. Transfer of improved tech and its adoption
vi. Resistance to various diseases , a number have
greatly improved storage life , improved
structural quality , winter hardiness , different
tree forms
vii. some of these limitations can overcome by noval
strategies from advances in biotechnology

59. Thank You
BY
Ch. Allaylay Devi