Welcome to iSTONE-HUB Project

iSTONE-HUB: AN INTERNATIONAL HUB FOR THE CONSERVATION AND VALORISATION OF PEACH AND OTHER STONE FRUITS

 

Cultivation and culture of the peach tree: a heritage treasure to challenge the future

Italy is the third worldwide producer of peaches. Beyond the economic aspect, peach culture is the bearer of an invaluable cultural heritage with roots in ancient Chinese tradition and later developments in the Roman hortus and the Renaissance gardens, until the pioneering experiences of modern intensive fruit-growing in Massa Lombarda (Ravenna, northern Italy, end of 19th century), flagship of the Italian fruit growing tradition now copied around the world.

Obituary: We mourn the departure of “Floyd” Zaiger , probably the most famous stone fruit breeder of the last century
 

Chris “Floyd” Zaiger (born in 1926) was one of the world’s most important stone fruit breeders of the 20th century. Trained as a biologist, he initially worked with F.W. Anderson (pioneer of modern peach breeding) from 1956 to 1957, and in 1958 he founded with his wife Zaiger Genetics (Modesto, California), perhaps the most important and complete breeding program worldwide for peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and rootstocks. Floyd released his first varieties ‘Royal Gold’ and ‘Crimson Gold’ in 1960, and today the company holds more than 200 US patented varieties. Floyd was not only the founder and owner of Zaiger Genetics, but mostly and for many years, an excellent breeder, able to recognize opportunities and promptly respond to the needs of the fruit industry all over the world. He has developed and improved important fruit quality traits (texture, colour, flavor, shelf-life) and earliness, introducing the practice of embryo rescue in breeding to obtain early-ripening varieties. Among the best-known varietal series, we mention the ‘Honey’ and ‘Arctic’ series, and above all, the ‘Big Top’ nectarine and the ‘Rich Lady’ peach, which revolutionized first and then conditioned the whole peach varietal landscape by introducing the ‘slow softening’ texture trait.

SPECIES

 

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) is an economically important Prunus species of temperate regions, with worldwide production totaling around four million tons. Apricot industry suffers from critical limitations along the supply chain, …

Prunus avium L. includes sweet cherry cultivated for human consumption and wild cherry used for wood, also called mazzards (Webster 1996). The sweet cherry is indigenous to parts of Asia, especially northern …

Peach is the most widely cultivated fruit (summer) tree in the temperate regions, particularly in the Mediterranean basin, Americas, Far East, and China. It was the first woody species to be targeted for …

With over 6,000 cultivars from up to 40 species distributed across Asia, Europe and America, it is little wonder that Hedrick, the famous USA pomologist, wrote that plums “give a greater range of flavour …

PROJECTS

 

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE INNOVATION OF FRUIT SUPPLY CHAINS

The  INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE INNOVATION OF FRUIT SUPPLY CHAINS is proposed as the first cultural, scientific and technological center applied to the field of museum display for the most important stone fruit species, peach in particular. In addition to being one…

PeachRefPop COLLECTION

The development of multisite collections with shared experimental designs is of utmost importance for the conservation and utilization of genetic materials and will greatly facilitate the dissection of genotype …

PATRNERS 

 
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