Innovative sustainable Nordic-Baltic horticulture (InNoBaHort)

Fruit Tree Canker (FTC) is the major challenge facing Swedish and Nordic apple production. The disease is caused by the fungus Neonectria ditissima, which infects trees year around in orchards. The disease also damages fruit in storage and can be transmitted during propagation in nurseries. FTC kills trees and can destroy entire orchards.

There is no control efficient control measure available that can prevent the spread of the disease. Most modern cultivars are highly susceptible and breeding for resistance is in its infancy. We aim to take a next step in breeding of new apple cultivars with high levels of resistance to canker. Genetic diversity and variation in pathogenicity among different fungus isolates will be evaluated.

Different resistance components in old and new cultivars and promising breeding selections will be evaluated, with an emphasis on germplasm that has not been evaluated for canker susceptibility previously. New knowledge will be built in collaboration with researchers from Norway, Finland and Estonia.