Major results of plum breeding in Bulgaria.

For a long time plum has been and it is still the major structure-forming crop among the fruit species in Bulgaria. Many local cultivars were grown in the past, a large number of them belonging to the cultivar type ‘Kyustendilska sinya sliva’. That is why breeding of new plum cultivars has been carried out in many research institutions in the country. The first organized plum breeding programmes started in 1950 at the Plum Experimental Station in the town of Dryanovo and at the Faculty of Agronomy within the University in Plovdiv. A little later, in 1953, plum breeding activities started at the institutes in Troyan, Kyustendil and Kostinbrod, all of them affiliated to the Agricultural Academy – Sofia. The plum breeding programme of the Fruit-Growing Institute in Plovdiv is comparatively new, starting in 1987. All the old and new breeding programmes have a common goal – the development of plum cultivars resistant to Sharka virus disease /PPV/. In the frames of all the programmes, 29 plum cultivars have been established in Bulgaria, the most widely distributed in industrial plantations being 'Gabrovska’, ‘Strinava’, ‘Gulyaeva’, ‘Nevena’, ‘Balvanska slava’, ‘Baleva sliva’, ‘Osogovska edra’, ‘Plovdivska’ and Received:18. 06. 2012. / Accepted: 30. 09. 2012. Acta Agriculturae Serbica, Vol. XVII, 33 (2012) 4 ‘Izobilie’.The paper presents a summarized analysis of the achievements of plum breeding in Bulgaria. The merits of all the breeders, whose creative research has directly or partially led to the establishment of new cultivars, are pointed out. Statistical data on all the plum cultivars established during the 60-year period since the middle of the last century until present, are published. An analysis is made on the efficiency of the used parent cultivars.