Future Germplasm Reserves — Stone Fruit Possibilities

Abstract

The diversity of stone fruit germplasm in North America has decreased rapidly and, unless the trend is stopped or reversed, fruit breeders and associated scientific disciplines may lose their future resources. Many remaining collections lack permanence, so permanent maintenance should be attempted through a repository system representing diverse disciplines.

Before starting my assigned subject, Dr. Harold Fogle kindly gave me a farily accurate list of current locations of North American stone-fruit collections. Most are maintained by individuals for breeding, variety and adaptation testing and other horticultural purposes. In some respects the list is impressive, but collections of cherries, apricots and almonds are noticeably few, probably partially due to limited adaptation of the species.

Meanwhile an ominous projection for the future also was evident since many collections were followed by notations such as defunct, inactive, curator retired, awaiting someone's replacement or merely a question mark. The obvious lack of permanence plus the ever dwindling number of clones within collections (mainly due to lack of immediate need and the economics of maintenance), portends a dangerous narrowing of germplasm resources. Furthermore, a compounding narrowness can be assumed since as clonal numbers within collections are reduced, the preponderance of remaining clones probably will be limited mostly to newer varieties that in themselves have a narrowing genetic background.