'Kalpa 1' a new late colour development apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) bud sport originated from cv. Starking Delicious

Breeding in perennial fruit crops is time consuming process with relatively low success rate as compared with annual crops. Apple fruit coloration is painstaking as noticeable marker of maturity (early to late) and outer quality during the fruit breeding. The occurrence of spontaneous bud mutations in plants has often led to their subsequent development as commercial cultivars. Keeping in view, present investigation was undertaken to identify bud sports in apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) in H.P. of India. In this study, based upon pre-selection criteria such as time of colour development and time of fruit maturation were implemented, one bud sport ‘Kalpa 1’ was identified as distinctive late in fruit skin development as compared to fully red coloured fruits on its mother tree of cv. Starking Delicious in H.P. India with red streaked fruits over yellow ground colour on the bud sports did not mature even at harvesting, respectively. Apart from the distinguishing character for which the bud sports were identified, they also differed in fruit shape and size, fruit firmness, fruit maturity, TSS, acidity and starch iodine test strain area. The identified bud sport has unique character of late maturity indices in H.P. This unique variety can be grown in other temperate regions of India with the same soil and climatic condition.