The University of Minnesota is home to one of the oldest continuous
fruit breeding programs in North America. We develop fruit cultivars
that are adapted to the vagaries of the continental climate of our
region—temperatures that range from 100° F in the summer
to -40° F in the winter, and precipitation that can vary dramatically
from year to year.
The University of Minnesota fruit breeding program was initiated
in 1878 as a response to the settlers’ need for sources of
fresh, canned, and dried fruits to provide essential variety and
nutrition in their diet. The breeding program was charged with developing
winter-hardy fruit varieties that would produce reliably on farmsteads.
As a result, nearly 100 varieties of apples, plums, grapes, strawberries,
raspberries and other fruits have been introduced since the 1920s.
Today, the fruit breeding program remains comprehensive, with substantial
efforts to develop commercial varieties of apple, grape, strawberry,
and blueberry. Our goal is to develop winter-hardy, disease-resistant
cultivars that bear high quality fruit at commercially profitable
levels in our region.
More Information About the Fruit Breeding Program:
Minnesota
Agricultural Experiment Station Horticultural Releases
“150
Years of Hardy Plants”
Small Fruit Variety Trials 2007
Minnesota
Impacts: “Fruit Crops: Breeding and Genetics for Cold Climates”
Arboretum
Research—Fruit Breeding
Yard
& Garden News Article on Strawberry Breeding
List of Nurseries Licensed to Propagate Honeycrisp and Zestar!
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