The Best Parents in Breeding French Hybrid Grapes (Part II)

Abstract

Most of the large number of F1 seedling selections were eliminated after trails because of low production, insufficient wine quality and small-sized fruit which made harvesting slow and expensive. Only a few F1's were sufficiently promising to enjoy a period of popularity as commercial varieties. Of these few, the majority were the tri-hybrids derived from Jaeger 70 ( lincecumiiX rupestris) X vinifera, because they possessed the size and production characters of vinifera to a greater degree than the bi-hybrids of viniferaX rupestrislineage. Despite this it became evident that even the best F ₁'s were not good enough to solve the problem adequately, and more viniferafruit characters would have to be introduced or intensified in the next generation.