EVALUATION OF SOME NEW PLUM CULTIVARS FOR FRESH CONSUMPTION IN CORRELATION WITH CONSUMER PREFERENCES

In Romania, plums are the major fruit species, the most varied in native and cultivated varieties and the most adapted to a soils and climatic conditions. Regarding the assortment, the local varieties have been always predominantly which are designated for distillation, but also some valuable plum cultivars like ‘Tuleu gras’, ‘Stanley’, ‘d’Agen’ and ‘Anna Spath’ which were grown for mixed utilization. From this reason, one of the objectives in plum breeding program is to obtain the cultivars with fruit quality designated for fresh consumption. Following an ample breeding program initiated 60 years ago the old assortment was gradually replaced by new varieties for the fresh market. By for, 40 plum varieties have been obtained in 4 research centres: Pitesti, Valcea, Bistrita and Voinesti. Over the period 2012 – 2014 some pomological characteristics were studied in 10 new plum cultivars (‘Alina’, ‘Carpatin’, ‘Pitestean’, ‘Roman’, ‘Romanta’, ‘Tita’ – from RIFG Pitesti and ‘Dani’, ‘Geta’, ‘Iulia’, ‘Romaner’ – from RSFG Bistrita). Studies were conducted on some fruit properties (size, shape, skin colour, bloom, taste, flavor, stone adherence, defect of skin caused by Plum Pox Virus, in order to select the table cultivars incorrelation with consumer preferences. Based on the results of research and panel test the best characteristics for fresh consumption were manifested ‘Carpatin’, ‘Tita’, ‘Alina’ and ‘Iulia’ cultivars, which presented large fruits and very good taste. ‘Roman’, ‘Romanta’ and ‘Geta’ cultivars presented large fruits and good appearance but the fruits content in soluble solids were low