Germplasm collection of rutabaga: study and prospect for use

Presently, rutabaga can be regarded as not widespread vegetable in Russia; nevertheless it is very valuable for its biochemical composition. Therefore, it is important to provide the its marketability and preserve it among common vegetable crops. Cultivars and hybrids of different specifications and economically valuable traits are required. Multi-year results on study of collection of rutabaga to select out promising accessions for breeding program are given in the article. The very important aim, on which the most consideration is taken, is to develop the cultivars suitable for mechanized harvesting with resistance to diseases and pests, with stable quality and yield ability. As a result, 18 table and fodder cultivars characterized by early maturation, stable yield ability per year have been selected out and recommended. Among them the promising accessions with fast maturation, high yield ability, resistance to diseases and pests, high consumer’s quality of roots. As it has been shown there are not cultivars completely immune to most dangerous pathogens, only few breeding accessions bore resistance of different levels. Therefore, it needs to select the genetic sources possessing the resistance of different level to clubroot, powdery mildew, downy mildew, and storage diseases. The selected accessions are recommended to develop hybrids F1. The accessions with high content of dry matter (11.0%-13.0%) and sugar (7.0%-9.0%) are ‘Brukva Zhjoltaya’ (Poland), ‘Kohlruben’, ‘Seegold’ (Germany), ‘Pajbjerg Sana’ (Danmark), ‘Frankenschtolz’, ‘Angela’ (Germany), Shedskaya Zhjoltaya (Russia) and ‘Mestniy Sort’ (Belgium). The accessions with decreased content of mustard oil are ‘Koalrot Banholm’ (Norway), ‘Krasnoselskaya’ (Russia), ‘Fenix’ (Sweden) and ‘Seegold’ (Germany).