New Pear Cultivars from the Czech Republic

The aim of this work was to evaluate important fruit and vegetative characters of new pear cultivars. The cultivars were evaluated in the pear germplasm collection in full bearing in the years 2004-2010. The germplasm collection comprising three trees of each cultivar on pear seedling rootstocks was planted at an altitude of 320 m at a spacing of 5x3.5 m. Vegetative characters evaluated include: flower set, beginning of flowering, fruit set, harvest maturity, graft compatibility with quince and growth intensity. Fruit characters evaluated included fruit weight, distribution of cover colour, taste, susceptibility to bruising and shelf-life. All evaluated summer cultivars ripened during August. Due to their earliness, the summer cultivars 'Isolda' and 'Radana' are suitable especially for warmer suburban areas. Autumn cultivars reached harvest maturity from mid September. Fruits of the cultivars 'Morava', 'Manon' and 'Elektra' weighed over 200 g. In the group of autumn cultivars, 'Morava' ranked the highest in taste. A very good tasting flesh was noted in the case of winter cultivars 'Vonka' and 'Dicolor'. 'Erika' was superior for cold storage ability until the end of April.