The future of horticultural research in the Bay of Plenty

Research into kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) breeding and rootstock evaluation at Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand is outlined. Cultivar improvement has involved the identification of useful sports or γ-irradiated mutations, and hybridization to improve earliness and produce hermaphrodite plants and novel fruit types. Rootstock improvement has entailed selecting potentially useful forms from seedlings, from fruit breeding programmes and from compatible Actinidia species