Delbard is a plant nursery in France known for breeding disease resistant apple and various roses. [1] [2]
Delbard Nursery was founded by and named after George Delbard, who was breeding fruit trees more than seventy years ago, at his family farm in the area of Malicorne, Allier in central France. Later on, he added roses, dahlias, and other flowers to his breeding work. This business is continued and expanded by his grandson Arnaud Delbard, who is working close with the Institut national de la recherche agronomique which is a French governmental organization, as well as with other international collaboration for global selective breeding. [2]
Delbard was first in France to create a breeding program for disease resistant apple cultivars, [2] located near Commentry, France, it is called "Delbard Pepinieres International". [3]
This is done internationally by screening selections and mutations of seedlings and variations of the domesticated apple, some of which have adapted to resist certain apple diseases. Another approach is to find the resistant genes in certain species of crab apple which is the ancestor of the domesticated apple, and to introduce those desired traits through backcrossing. [2]
Altogether, the apples still needs to taste good as well, so this involves years of experiments, tasting and testing to provide a good apple for the consumer, which should be disease resistant and of good flavour, texture and looks. [2]
Jean-Paul Reynoird, Delbard's research director says, that only about twenty selections out of 2000 hybrids initiated, will make it till the end. Delbard has a separate program for pear breeding, aiming to combat fireblight. [2]
One of the very special apple cultivars developed by Delbard is the Tentation apple also called Dellblush [4] which is limited for cultivation to New Zealand, [1] Delbard Jubilee and Delbarestivale which has excellent taste in Southern Indiana, USA for a mid season apple. [3]
Tissue culture started at Delbard in the early 1980s when they began to use fragments of stems and green tissue of certified virus-free mother stock to grow plant material in vitro. The clonal modern approach, is still under the classification of vegetative propagation, hence reproducing true to type. This is used for fruits as well as for flower and roses. In the fruit tree department which itself is producing 300,000 trees annually, two thirds are sold at the retail garden centers directly to the private customers, usually in bonsai containers or pots, and one third is sold for commercial growers. Plants sold for private user needs, which are carefully raised to perfection and already ready to fruit, are usually marked with a "W". [2]
Delbard is utilizing to barn new technology called "regenesis" which involves the use of irradiation to force mutations from tissue culture material in vitro. Then they regenerate a bud from the irradiated cells. This is done with hope to change only a few undesirable characteristics of a plant and preserve its overall combination of traits. [2]
As of today this business is producing nursery stock material for commercial growers, as well as for forty retail garden centers. The nursery area covers six hundred hectares, or about 1500 acres, of sheltered greenhouses and open field plantations. [2]
The peach is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others, nectarines.
Fruit tree propagation is usually carried out vegetatively (non-sexually) by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock.
Red Delicious is a type of apple with a red exterior and sweet taste that was first recognized in Madison County, Iowa, in 1872. Today, the name Red Delicious comprises more than 50 cultivars. It was the most produced cultivar in the United States from 1968 to 2018, when it was surpassed by Gala.
The tamarillo is a small tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanaceae. It is best known as the species that bears the tamarillo, an egg-shaped edible fruit. It is also known as the tree tomato, tomate de árbol, tomate andino, tomate serrano, blood fruit, poor man's tomatoe, tomate de yuca, tomate de españa, sachatomate, berenjena, chilto and tamamoro in South America, tyamtar, rambheda or rukh tamatar in Nepal, and terong Belanda in Indonesia. It is popular globally, especially in Peru, Colombia, New Zealand, Ecuador, Nepal, Rwanda, Burundi, Australia, Bhutan and the United States.
Apple scab is a common disease of plants in the rose family (Rosaceae) that is caused by the ascomycete fungus Venturia inaequalis. While this disease affects several plant genera, including Sorbus, Cotoneaster, and Pyrus, it is most commonly associated with the infection of Malus trees, including species of flowering crabapple, as well as cultivated apple. The first symptoms of this disease are found in the foliage, blossoms, and developing fruits of affected trees, which develop dark, irregularly-shaped lesions upon infection. Although apple scab rarely kills its host, infection typically leads to fruit deformation and premature leaf and fruit drop, which enhance the susceptibility of the host plant to abiotic stress and secondary infection. The reduction of fruit quality and yield may result in crop losses of up to 70%, posing a significant threat to the profitability of apple producers. To reduce scab-related yield losses, growers often combine preventive practices, including sanitation and resistance breeding, with reactive measures, such as targeted fungicide or biocontrol treatments, to prevent the incidence and spread of apple scab in their crops.
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem. In grafting, it refers to a plant, sometimes just a stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, onto which a cutting or a bud from another plant is grafted. In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out. The plant part grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion. The scion is the plant that has the properties that propagator desires above ground, including the photosynthetic activity and the fruit or decorative properties. The rootstock is selected for its interaction with the soil, providing the roots and the stem to support the new plant, obtaining the necessary soil water and minerals, and resisting the relevant pests and diseases. After a few weeks, the tissues of the two parts will have grown together, eventually forming a single plant. After some years, it may be difficult to detect the site of the graft although the product always contains the components of two genetically different plants.
Malus sieversii is a wild apple native to the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan. It has recently been shown to be the primary ancestor of most cultivars of the domesticated apple. It was first described as Pyrus sieversii due to its similarities with pears in 1833 by Carl Friedrich von Ledebour, a German naturalist who saw them growing in the Altai Mountains.
Alternaria citri is a fungal plant pathogen that causes black rot in citrus plants.
Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion while the lower part is called the rootstock. The success of this joining requires that the vascular tissues grow together. The natural equivalent of this process is inosculation. The technique is most commonly used in asexual propagation of commercially grown plants for the horticultural and agricultural trades. The scion is typically joined to the rootstock at the soil line; however, top work grafting may occur far above this line, leaving an understock consisting of the lower part of the trunk and the root system.
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition.
Mutation breeding, sometimes referred to as "variation breeding", is the process of exposing seeds to chemicals, radiation, or enzymes in order to generate mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars. Plants created using mutagenesis are sometimes called mutagenic plants or mutagenic seeds.
'Surprise' is a pink-fleshed apple that is the ancestor of many of the present-day pink/red-fleshed apples bred by American growers.
Applecrabs are various hybrids between crabapples and apples. They are bred for varying reasons, including disease resistance and use in cold climates because they are often hardier than apple trees and their fruit has the good eating qualities of apples.
Pristine apple is a hybrid cultivar of 'Co Op 10' x 'Camuzat' domesticated apples, which are descendants of the 'McIntosh' apple and the 'Starking Delicious'. This cultivar was developed and patented in the United States by the PRI disease resistant apple breeding program, in Indiana, United States in 1994, for its resistance to apple scab. It is susceptible to cedar-apple rust.
Malus PERPETU 'Evereste' is an ornamental cultivar of crabapple that was developed by INRA in 1974 and is registered under their trademark with the name Malus perpetu.
'Delbarestivale', also called 'Delcorf', is a cultivar of domesticated apple, which was developed by the Delbard nursery in France. It is a very sweet apple. 'Delcorf' is a parent of the 'Zari' apple and the 'Nicogreen' apple.
'Delbard Jubilée' or 'Delgollune' is a modern French cultivar of domesticated apple which was developed in 1964 by Delbard nurseries. It is not the same as the Jubilee apple that was developed in Canada.
Winston is an English cultivar of domesticated apple which was first named Winter King because of its availability in the winter, but was renamed as Winston in 1944 or in 1945, after Winston Churchill.
Flamenco, also known as Ballerina Obelisk, is a cultivar of domesticated apple that bears apples good for eating fresh, and is grown for its unusual ornamental properties. The tree grows in a straight up columnar style, with many small fruit-bearing branches. 'Flamenco' is one of a series of apple tree cultivars that share a registered trademark under the name Ballerina.
EverCrisp is an American apple cultivar developed by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA). Trademarked as EverCrisp, the MAIA-1 variety is a cross between two existing apple cultivars: the Honeycrisp and Fuji. Originally produced in Ohio, EverCrisp has since expanded to apple-growing regions across the Midwest in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, in the Northeast in Pennsylvania and New York, and in the Northwest in Washington. The apple entered the public marketplace in 2017.