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Building of a breeding program to develop resistant varieties of strawberries with special suitability for organic farming
Project
Project code: 2809OE084
Contract period: 01.01.2011
- 30.04.2014
Budget: 210,587 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Botrytis cinerea and Xanthomonas fragariae are two important pests in organic strawberry cultivation. Effective pesticides are not permitted in organic farming and only indirect plant protecting measures such as cultivation methods and plant strengthening products can help to improve the productivity. Resistant or tolerant cultivars with special applicability for organic farming could be an effective approach to improve the productivity of organic strawberry cultivation. The aim of the project is to adapt an established conventional strawberry breeding program to the requirements of organic farming. This newly established breeding program will be focused on the improvement of resistance/tolerance of new strawberry cultivars to the two aforementioned plant diseases. In phase 1 of the project strawberry cultivars of the German Fruit Genetic Resources Network as well as cultivars and wild species accessions of the Fruit Genbank at JKI in Dresden-Pillnitz will be evaluated towards their resistance/susceptibility to B. cinerea and X. fragariae. Therefore, artificial resistance tests will be performed in the greenhouse. For X. fragariae such a test is already available. For B. cinerea an artificial resistance test still has to be established. Therefore, a pathogen strain collection will be established. Resistant/tolerant genotypes will be selected based on the results of the resistance tests and used for test crosses to study the inheritance of the resistance trait and to get an impression about the possibility of success of the intended breeding program. The results of the test crosses will lead to the identification of genotypes that are suitable for a targeted resistance breeding against B. cinerea and X. fragariae.
Section overview
Subjects
- Plant Breeding
- Horticulture
Framework programme
Federal Organic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
Funding programme
Excutive institution
Institute for Breeding Research on Horticultural Crops (JKI-ZG)