S16 - Session P2 - Advances in the chestnut nursery industry: the new Castanea spp. Conservation and Certification Center

Authors: Giovanni Gamba *, Maria Gabriella Mellano, Dario Donno, Eva Malacarne, Marco Rocca, Marco Corgnati, Paola Bergero, Gabriele Loris Beccaro

The production of certified nursery plant material is a reality well established for most fruit species. The main aims of the genetic-sanitary certification are the improvement of fruit quality production and the supply chain traceability. Modern chestnut cultivation, whether intensive or traditional, needs the same operating standards to be competitive. At the Chestnut R&D Center n Piemonte (NW Italy), the production of certified trees is going through different steps: conservation, pre-multiplication, multiplication and nursery. The Center for the conservation for the pre-multiplication (CCP) stores and propagates pre-base mother plants, genetically certified with molecular markers (SSR or Simple Sequence Repeats), that are grown in a double layer anti-insect nets greenhouse. The presence of viruses, fungi, phytoplasmas, bacteria, and nematodes is assessed visually and through laboratory tests. The activity of pre-multiplication (CP) is carried out inside of screen houses: the cultivation of pre-basis mother plants allows the production of basis materials. The final production of certified plants will be done at private nursery level. A specific technique for chestnut agamic propagation was studied and applied in order to produce clonal hybrids rootstocks. Studies on chestnut graft compatibility are ongoing, with the aim of finding early predictive methods to evaluate the affinity level of different scion/rootstocks combinations, therefore supporting the multiplication process.