Breeding of New Plum Cultivars in Romania

In Romania, the plum has been and will continue be the most grown fruit species. This is explained by its high environmental adaptation, ease of breeding, rusticity of local cultivars, favourable weather conditions and various ways of marketing that are available. From the cultivar point of view, the local cultivars, those intended particularly for distillation purposes represent the majority, but there have always been cultivars fit both for the fresh market and for processing (e.g., 'Tuleu gras', 'Grase romanesti', 'Vinete romanesti'). With this regard in view, since the middle of the 19 th century the plum assortment in Romania has been modernized, developing new autochtononous cultivars and also introducing foreign cultivars regarded as better ones and suitable for adaptation under Romanian ecological conditions. The Romanian plum breeding was started 50 years ago and has had the following objectives: improvement of the old autochthonous cultivars ('Tuleu gras', 'Grase romanesti' and 'Vinete romanesti'); development of various cultivars with different ripening times and with high quality fruit, designated both for the fresh market and for processing; obtaining late blooming cultivars resistant to the late spring frosts, with virus disease resistance or tolerance (particularly to the Plum pox virus) as well as with low vigour and spur fruiting. The breeding has been carried out in the following plum centers: Pitesti, Valcea, Voinesti, Strejesti and Bistrita - areas with favourable climatic conditions for plum culture. As a result of this breeding program, 37 plum cultivar varieties were registered: 'Agent', 'Albatros', 'Alina', 'Baragan 17', 'Carpatin', 'Centenar', 'Dambovita', 'Diana', 'Flora', 'Gras ameliorat', 'Ialomita', 'Minerva', 'Pescarus', 'Pitestean', 'Renclod de Caransebes', 'Roman', 'Sarmatic', 'Silvia', 'Superb', 'Tita', 'Tuleu dulce', 'Tuleu timpuriu', 'Vinete romanesti cl. 300' (Research Institute for Fruit Growing Pitesti-Maracineni) ; 'Dani', 'Delia', 'Doina', 'Elena', 'Geta', 'Iulia', 'Ivan', 'Jubileu 50', 'Matilda', 'Romaner', 'Zamfira' (Research Station for Fruit Growing Bistrita), 'Andreea', 'Valcean' (Research Station for Fruit Growing Valcea) and 'Record' (Research Station for Fruit Growing Voinesti).