The work in All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of breeding and horticultural crops on pear selection was launched in 1949. The main purpose of selection was to create winter-hardy, productive, resistant to fungal diseases, high-quality varieties of different ripening terms. Considerable attention have been paid to the study of the inheritance the most important economic biological features by hybrid seedlings of pears, the development of methods for accelerating the selection process. To achieve these goals at different selection process stages in crossing process were involved the local semi-cultural forms of pears, Central Russian varieties, varieties of Western European and American origin, hybrid varieties and hybrids of 1-4 generations are obtained from Ussuriyskaya pear and some cases pears of Peschanaya and Bretshneyder breeds, and hybridization between selected and elite seedlings All-Russia Scientific Research Institute was used. For the entire period of selection work with a pear were carried out 2200 crossing combinations, the volume of hybridization was 2.5 million flowers, 330 thousand seeds were obtained and 110 thousand seedlings were grown, 45 thousand of which were planted in breeding gardens. Currently more than 5000 hybrid seedlings are being studied in the institute's selection gardens. In recent years based on a series of crosses of highly-resistant Ussuriyskaya pear descendants with monogenic control of dwarfism pear forms have been derived winter-resistant dwarf genotypes with a height of not more than 1.5 m at the age of seven. Using these in breeding will allow to obtain in the offspring up to 50% of dwarf seedlings. Varieties of different ripening terms were selected: summer - Orlovskaya krasavitsa, Orlovskaya letnyaya, Pamyatnaya; autumn - Eseninskaya, Muratovskaya, Pamyat Parshina, Tyutchevskaya; winter - Lyra. Based on different genetics were obtained donors and sources of economically valuable traits. The description of the most promising varieties and donors of valuable traits of plant breeding is given.
