Program to Obtain New Table Grape Varieties I.

SUMMARY

In Turkey more than 1200 grape varieties are described. Most of them are mid-season and seeded varieties. By that result it is needed very early and late maturing or large berried seedless table grape varieties for both domestic and foreign markets. For that purpose in the year 1973, vine hybridisation programme started. Programme included description of parents, castration, pollination, obtaining of F₁ plants, selection of promising F₁ plants, comparison of F₁ plants with standard varieties, adaptation of candidate varieties and registration of the new varieties. Up to date more than 30.000 F₁ plants obtained from 150 combinations between 30 table grape varieties. Nearly 16.000 of the F₁ plants were observed and 426 promising varieties included to comparison plots with standard varieties. Nearly 20 of them varieties grafted on the grower vineyards in different ecologies for adaptation tests. The ecologies that varieties tested are Mediterranean (early and under cover table growing), Aegean (mid season and seedless grape growing areas), Marmara (late maturing table grapes growing area), and South East (early, desert area). To the end of 1996, 8 new table grape varieties registered as “Yalova Varieties”. Those are:

-Yalova İncisi (white) and Uslu (red) very early varieties (10-15 days earlier than Cardinal)

-Yalova Çekirdeksizi, Ergin Çekirdeksizi and Samancı are seedless, white and large berried (4-6g) varieties.

- Ata Sarısı (10-12g) and Yalova Beyazı (7-8g) are both large berried, white, mid (Yalova Beyazı) and Late (Ata Sarısı) season varieties.

- Yalova Misketi (black) early, Muscat flavour variety.