STUDY OF GERMAN PLUM CULTIVARS UNDER THE PEDOCLIMATIC CONDITIONS FROM RIFG PITESTI-MĂRĂCINENI

Given the importance of the plum culture in Romania and the fact that, year by year, the plum assortment is renewed with autochtonous and foreign cultivars, in this work we have proposed the study of 8 foreign cultivars resulting from the Germany breeding program ('Jojo', 'Haganta', 'Hanita', 'Topend plus', 'Topfive', 'Topfirst', 'Toptaste', 'Topgigant plus') considered very good from a quantitative and qualitative point of view in their country of origin. As a control 'Stanley' and 'Centenar' cvs. were used, widespread in the commercial orchards from Romania. The cultivars are located in a field trial established in 2018 within the Genetics and Breeding laboratory. The trees, grafted on the Mirobolan C5 rootstock, were planted at a distance of 4 m between rows and 3 m between the trees and the crowns were trained as flat open center. During the 2020-2022 period the following observations and determinations were carry out: flowering and ripening phenophases, yielding capacity in kg/tree, fruits quality (weight, flesh firmness, soluble solids content) and behaviour to Plum Pox Virus. Following the observations and determinations made, the 'Topfirst' cv. was noted by earliness (3rd decade of July), 'Jojo', 'Haganta', 'Topgigant plus' and 'Topfirst' through higher productions than the two cultivars taken as a control, 'Haganta', 'Topgigant plus', 'Jojo' and 'Topend plus' through very large fruits (over 50 g on average) and 'Jojo', 'Haganta' and 'Hanita' by resistance to Plum Pox Virus. These cultivars can be recommended for the extension in the commercial orchards from Romania, taking into account the requirements of the private fruit growers. Also, some of these cultivars can be used as genitors in breeding works.