Venturia inaequalis resistance in local Spanish cider apple germplasm under controlled and field conditions

Host resistance is a key method for the integrated management of apple scab caused by Venturia inaequalis, which is one of the most important diseases of apple. Artificial inoculation of 92 cider apple cultivars with a mixed inoculum of V. inaequalis identified 19 weakly resistant and 19 resistant cultivars. Twelve of these resistant cultivars were previously classified as having low susceptibility to fire blight, and four of them showed complete or weak resistance to races (1), (1, 6) and (6, 7, 13) of V. inaequalis. The analysis of a selection of 72 cultivars for 6 years under field conditions identified 14 cultivars that were classified as resistant to apple scab under high disease pressure involving one to six Mills periods of severe risk of infection each year. Eight out of these 14 cultivars previously showed high levels of resistance to fire blight, which would allow the incorporation of genetic resistance in the integrated production of cider apples in Spain through their use in breeding programs.