Screening apple cultivars better adapted to organic fruit production – a transborder and participatory approach

Summary

Many of the varieties currently grown in Organic Production (OP) are still the result of selections carried out in conventional production. Other priority criteria apply in organic production, such as better resistance/tolerance to pests and diseases, greater robustness, lower susceptibility to biennial yield, good storage capacity, etc. As part of the INTERREG ‘Biodimestica’ project between the Centre Régional de Ressources Génétiques (CRRG) in France and the Centre Wallon de Recherches Agronomiques (CRA-W) in Belgium, two low input organic evaluation orchards have been set up at the two partners' sites. The aim was to select apple varieties that are more suitable to low input organic farming systems. Trees are grafted onto M9 rootstock and grown under low-input organic conditions, in order to evaluate the best performing varieties in terms of regularity of production, disease and pest tolerance. Fruit quality parameters are also studied. Initial and final choice of varieties are discussed on a participatory base. The final most promising varieties are proposed to organic growers that are members of ‘NovaFruits’- a transborder organic participative breeding association with 31 professional growers. Results of a comparative assessment of 21 varieties are presented in this paper.