Computerized Fruit Germplasm Resources Inventory

Abstract

The loss of some varietal collections and the severe depletion of many others poses serious problems for the fruit breeder and eventually for the fruit industry. Commercially grown cultivars represent only a minute portion of those described in the literature. This is well illustrated in apples where over eight thousand cultivars have been described, but less than two dozen are grown on a large enough scale to be reported by the various statistical services. The other clones are maintained in germplasm resource collections usually by institutional or private breeders. These collections are extremely important. A computerized inventory of them is proposed as an aid to planning for their continuance.