Improving the assortment of table grape cultivars with new clones with increased adaptability to the current climate changes

Abstract

In Romania, in the last three decades, it was registered a decrease of the vineyards surfaces planted with table grapes, this generating an increase in imports of this very healthy aliment. At the same time, the climate changes registered in recent years such as dry periods alternating with torrential rains, or climatic accidents which affected the existence of vineyard plantations, caused damages both on the quality and quantity of table grape productions. For this reason, at the Research and Development Station for Viticulture and Oenology Murfatlar, during the period 2008-2022, selection research was carried out in some of the valuable populations of table grape cultivars such as 'Centennial seedless', 'Bican roz' and 'Moldova', by following the characters regarding the resistance of some individuals to stressful environmental factors. From the populations of the 3 cultivars, clonal elites for each of them were selected and tested virologically. The healthy elites were multiplied and transferred to the comparative field where, after 5 years of observations and determinations, the most valuable elites were tested and registered. In the selection process, characters such as ampelographical, phenological, agrobiological qualities were followed. It were registered the following characteristics: ripening date, productivity, general appearance of the grapes, skin colour, compactness, shape and size of the berry, resistance to diseases and pests, adaptability to the stressful environmental factors such as drought, late frosts, etc. As a result of the selection activity spread over 14 years, these elites were tested by the State Institute for the Testing and Registration of Cultivars (I.S.T.I.S.) and registered in the Official Catalogue of Cultivars from Romania. This paper present the partial results of this research, respectively the following clones: 'Centennial seedless 48 M'f, 'Bican roz 6 Mf' and 'Moldova 3 Mf'.