Strawberry breeding in Yugoslavia

The first stage of breeding new strawberry cultivars at the Fruit and Grape Research Institute, Cacak, started in the 1950's. It resulted in the release of three cultivars: Cacanska Rana, Cacanska Krupna and 45/7. The second stage began in 1980 and was aimed at developing early ripening, highly cropping, cultivars, resistant to adverse environmental effects, as well as to major diseases and pests, of good quality fruits suitable for fresh use, freezing and processing. The programme of planned hybridization involved over 50 cultivars and hybrids in a number of crosses. Some 100,000 hybrid seedlings were raised and selected. About 100 promising seedlings were singled out for further study. Three hybrids (III/2/86/88, III/3/86/88 and III/4/86/88) are distinguished by their properties. It is noteworthy that they were obtained from the same parental cross, Belrubi x Vesper.