Mango breeding in Israel - principals and difficulties.
Tomer E., Gazit S., Lavi U., Shoker S., Ripa M., Zipori I., Sa'ada D.
Author Affiliation: ARO Volcani Center, PO Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.
: 245-251
Abstract : The commercial mango (Mangifera indica) cultivars grown in Israel often have undesirable traits including poor yield, low fruit quality, lack of colour, poor shelf life and unsuitable fruit size for marketing. Israel has ~2000 ha of commercial mango orchards in 4 different regions. The total production exceeds 15?000 tonnes, of which ~ 5000 tonnes were exported in 1996. Increases in production and export are predicted. A breeding project was initiated to select cultivars with improved yield, quality and shelf life, with a long harvesting season (July-November). This project consists of 6 ha of high density (2 × 4 m) plots of seedlings planted in 2 locations. Each year, 1000-2000 new seedlings are planted. The seedlings are evaluated during the first and second years of fruiting. Promising selections are grafted and tested in 4 mango growing regions. The source of the seedlings, controlled crosses, seeds from open pollination, planting density and the number of seedlings evaluated are described.