Small fruit breeding in Finland
Authors: Hiirsalmi Heimo 
Published: July 2018

In Finland, the breeding of small fruits has been focused on species belonging to the Ribes, Fragaria, Rubus, Vaccinium and Hippophaë genera. Of the blackcurrant, many local varieties have been brought under cultivation during this century, the most significant being ‘Brödtorp’ and ‘Melalahti’. The Department of Horticulture of the Agricultural Research Centre has, by means of intervariety crossings, developed selections combining high yield, upright growth and resistance to gooseberry mildew. A selection with greenberries, chosen from among the self-pollination progeny of the Swedish ‘Öjebyn’ variety, was released for cultivation in 1987, under the name ‘Vertti’. As to the gooseberry, the old Finnish varieties ‘Hinnnomäen keltainen’ and ‘Lepaanpunainen’ are still generally cultivated. In 1984, the Department of Horticulture released the late, cultivated strawberry variety ‘Hiku’, a very good cropper, for cultivation. It comes from the crossing ‘Senga Sengana’ x ‘Redgauntlet’. The most promising early selection, which this spring was released for cultivation under the name ‘Mari’, comes from the crossing ‘Pocahontas’ x ‘Lihama’. In 1986, the wood strawberry variety ‘Minja’ a result of the crossing Fragaria vesca x ‘Rügen’, was brought under cultivation. In the breeding of the raspberry, the Department of Horticulture has utilized the gene pools of wild raspberries; this has produced new selections with fairly good winter hardiness. This spring a variety named ‘Ville’, which was produced in the crossing of the Canadian ‘Ottawa’ and a Finnish wild raspberry strain, was introduced on the market. In addition, the raspberry has been crossed with the arctic bramble. By means of many crossings and back-crossings, the so-called nectar raspberry was developed, of which the variety ‘Heija’ was released for cultivation in 1975 and the variety ‘Heisa’ in 1981. Of the arctic bramble, two natural strains selected by the North Savo Research Station of the Agricultural Research Centre were brought under cultivation in 1972 under the variety names ‘Mesma’ and ‘Mespi’. The cross between them, ‘Pima’, was released for cultivation in 1982. By crossing the arctic bramble with the Alaska bramble, the Department of Horticulture has developed arctic bramble hybrid selections, two of which were named varieties, ‘Aura’ and ‘Astra’, in 1986. They form a higher growth structure than the arctic bramble, are better croppers and have bigger berries with the fine aroma of the arctic bramble. As a result of the breeding work done at the Department of Horticulture, a high bush blueberry variety, ‘Aron’, with a better winter hardiness than the foreign varieties, was released for cultivation in 1982. It comes from the back-crossing ‘Rancocas’ x (Vaccinium utiginosum x ‘Rancocas’). The aim of the breeding of the sea-buckthorn at the Department of Horticulture is, by means of crossings between subspecies growing wild in Europe and Asia, to reduce the thorniness of the bushes and to cause the berries to come off the stalks intact. The release of two selections for cultivation is presently being prepared.