_
Casals J., Bosch Ll., Casañas F., Cebolla J., Nuez F. Departament d’Enginyeria Agroalimentària i Biotecnologia, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. (2010) Montgrí, a Cultivar within the Montserrat Tomato Type. HortScience. 45(12):1885–1886.
Abstract
Montserrat is a tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) landrace of Marmande-type (Philouze, 1991) that is widely cultivated in Catalonia (northeast Spain). It is medium-sized, markedly ribbed, and has hollow spaces in the seed cavity. There are two morphological variants, a flattened one that gives its name to the more common landrace (Montserrat) and a pyriform one (Pera Girona). The two variants have distinct markets and form part of the Catalan gastronomic tradition, being important in numerous local dishes (salads, sauces, stuffed tomatoes). Local farmers carry out their own selections, thus preserving the genetic variability in situ. However, in recent years, introgressions from other traditional and/or improved cultivars have resulted in numerous transitional forms. We began a breeding program to obtain a prototypical cultivar of Pera Girona within the Montserrat landrace that would fulfill consumers’ organoleptic demands, maintain the typical shape, and have good agronomic behavior while ensuring the homogeneity necessary in today’s marketplace. The result we present here is a cultivar that respects the morphological characteristics of the fruit, has a superior organoleptic quality, and a low susceptibility to blossom-end rot (BER).