Victorian Department of Primary Industries (VICDPI)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

The National Pear Breeding Program aimed to develop new high-quality pears with good fruit appearance, good storage and shelf potential, diversified maturity, better scab resistance and grower-friendly tree characteristics. This report summarised the progress of the program in the period 2003/04 to 2005/06.

Over 61,000 seedling hybrids from over 170 controlled crosses were planted at the DPI Victoria Tatura site, since the commencement of the program in 1991. Over 44 existing pear varieties and 18 elite selections from the program itself were used for crossing. When this report was published over 31 ,000 seedling trees, varying in age from 1 to 10 years, remained in seedling orchards, with 76 per cent of them having produced fruits.

Each cropping season about 1000 seedling trees were visually selected and their fruit subjected to storage under refrigerated cold room conditions (1°C). The fruit quality was assessed by a sensory panel after at least six weeks of storage followed by one week of allowing the fruit to ripen. Respectively, 33 and 44 selections were identified in 2003/04 and 2004/05, which resulted in a total of 149 selections by the end of the 2004/05 cycle. Assessment of the 2005/06 harvest was ongoing and was reported at another opportunity.