Comprehensive evaluation of introduced pear tree varieties in the forest-steppe of the Altai Region’s Ob River area

Abstract

The research findings on pear tree varieties of various ecological and geographical origins are discussed. The research goal was to study the introduced pear tree varieties and identify the most adaptive ones for the conditions of the forest-steppe of the Altai Region’s Ob River area. The research targets were 18 pear tree varieties of various ecological and geographical origins. The research was conducted from 2006 through 2012 in the forest-steppe of the Altai Region’s Ob River area at the Research Institute of Gardening in Siberia named after M.A. Lisavenko, the department of the Federal Altai Scientific Center of Agro-Biotechnologies. The conventional methods of fruit crops variety study were used. It has been found that studied pear tree varieties have sufficient winter hardiness under the conditions of the forest-steppe of the Altai Region’s Ob River area, but they freeze heavily in severe winters. The winter hardy varieties ‘Olga’ and ‘Vnuchka’ had mild frost damage after severe winters of 2005/06 and 2009/10. Low-hardy varieties with frost damage over 4 points were ‘Osennaya mechta’, ‘Pozdnaya’, ‘Chu Xian’, ‘Larinskaya’, ‘Myth’, ‘Obilnaya’, ‘Osennaya Yakovleva’, ‘Permyachka’, and ‘Uralochka’. Winter damage after severe winters affected the general condition of the trees and yields. The varieties ‘Larinskaya’, ‘Obilnaya’, ‘Pin-go-li’, ‘Permyachka’ could not recover and completely died. The productivity of pear tree varieties decreased or was absent after severe winters. The variety ‘Olga’ stood out with the highest yield - 9.2 kg per tree. The variety ‘Osennaya mechta’ was selected based on the tasting evaluation of fruits with dessert taste. The variety ‘Permayachka’ stood out with fruits above the average size (160.0 g), with medium fruits - the variety ‘Osennaya Yakovleva’ (130.0 g). The selected varieties are of interest when used in breeding as sources of valuable characters.