BIODIVERSITY OF NATIONAL SQUASH CULTIVAR ACCESSIONS

• Main Authors: A. F. Bukharov, N. V. Stepanuk, A. R. Bukharova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Federal Scientific Vegetable Center" 2017-04-01
• Series: Ovoŝi Rossii
• Subjects: squash; cultivars; initial breeding material; biochemical composition.
• Online Access: https://www.vegetables.su/jour/article/view/352
• ISSN: 2072-9146; 2618-7132

The squash is one of  the most  ancient plants, bearing numerous qualities. The squash gave high yield and is unpretentious plant, the fruit of which is long-stored and can be used as boiled, stewed, baked, fried product, and be added to bread, mush and pudding, and be prepared as puree, jam, candied fruit and other meals. Owing to useful characteristics the squash is a valuable source or raw  material for  food  canning  industry,  for  health-care and functional foodstuff production. Its best cultivar accessions contain to 30% of dry matter, to 12% of sugars  and  to  36%  of  carotene.  The  species  of  squash includes 4 subspecies and 20 varieties. One accession that came from Spain in 1937 served as an initial breeding accession for many other table cultivars for long time. For 80 years of national breeding program the many cultivars for  table  use have been released. There are the classic cultivars, such as ‘Mramornaya’, ‘Stolovaya Zimnaya’,  Gribovskaya Zimnaya’,  ‘Donskaya  Sladkaya’, ‘Michurinskaya’ that are selected or developed from first Spanish accession. This richness and originality of cultivar squash accessions should be carefully preserved. There are the new generation cultivars, such as ‘Kroshka’, ‘Malishka’,    ‘Rossiyanka’,    ‘Konfetka’,    ‘Moskvichka’, ‘Vnuchka’ and many others, which are short-tendrils and suitable for  modern  mechanized cultivation  technology. Moreover the development of new cultivars, bearing resistance to biotic and abiotic stress is the main goal of nearest breeding program.