Costituzione di cultivar di albicocco a fioritura tardiva

The apricot industry in Italy has two main adversities: Monilia and spring frost. The frost damages that occour at the end of the winter are particularly important for this species because of the early blooming of many cultivars. The breeding program of the Istituto Sperimentale per la Frutticoltura of Rome has been established to find and to breed late blooming cultivars according to the following lines of research: settlement of a variety testing trial including the best Italian and foreign varieties and singling out of new cultivars among the population of the Vesuvius apricots, cross pollination, mutagenesis. The variety testing trial has been done by the experimental farms in Fiorano (Rome) and Francolise (Caserta). In the climatic conditions of the trial the blossoming occours in a two months period (end of January, end of March) and most of the cultivars bloom in the first part of March. Among the late blooming cultivars, those choosen as parents for this caracter, together with positive agronomical and pomological characteristics are: Ampuis, Abate, Alfred, Ananassa, Cibo del Paradiso, Earle Orange,. Farmingdale, Polonais, Precoce de Sernhac, S. Francesco, Sucré de Holub Amélioré. In 1976 a ionizing radiation program to induce late blooming mutations was began on the following varieties: Abate, Boccuccia, Boccuccia liscia, Boccuccia spinosa, Don Gaetano, Fracasso, Monaco Bello, Nennella, Nonno, Palummella, Pazza, Pelese di Giovanniello, Pellecchiella, Prete, S. Castrese, S. Francesco, Setacciara.