Abstract
The article presented the results of many years of research by the Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Growing LLP on the study and improvement of apple and pear varieties. The relevance of the work is due to the need to increase the adaptability, yield and quality of fruit production in the south and south-east of Kazakhstan. The study was aimed at the agrobiological evaluation of local and introduced varieties in order to identify the most promising forms for intensive horticulture. Over the past 20 years, 97 apple varieties and 25 pear varieties have been submitted for state variety testing, and more than 70 new varieties have been added to the institute’s gene pool, including ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Champion’, ‘Red Chief’, ‘Pink Lady’, ‘Samurlet’, ‘Lyra’, ‘Muratovskaya’ and others. The research was conducted in 2022-2024 in the climatic conditions of the south and south-east of the republic. The evaluation was based on a number of economically valuable characteristics: early fruiting, yield, adaptability, fruit shelf life, resistance to diseases (scab, powdery mildew, bacterial burn) and pests. As a result, varieties with the highest degree of adaptability, stable productivity (up to 550 cwt/ha), high taste qualities and suitability for storage were selected. The article contains characteristics of 12 apple varieties and 10 pear varieties, including data on biological and economic indicators. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of using the results obtained when planting industrial orchards and optimising the variety composition in regions with similar growing conditions