Evaluation of parent combinations fertility in plum breeding (Prunus domestica L.)

Abstract

Plum as a fruit species initiates a large amount of fruit buds but the percentage of fruit set depends on many factors. The number of plants obtained from a certain combination is especially important in the breeding process, due to the fact that not all the seeds germinate after seed stratification by the conventional method in moist sand. Therefore it is very important to evaluate the fertility of the selected parent combinations with the aim of proper plan making. This study presents results of fertility evaluation of 43 parent combinations carried out in the period 2002-2010. A total of 30941 flowers were pollinated and 1406 hybrid seeds were obtained. The percentage of the obtained seeds compared to the pollinated flowers was 6.2% in average for all the combinations. The highest fertility – 46.3% was reported for the ‘Ortenauer’ x ‘Čačanska lepotica’ crossing, followed by ‘Stanley’ x ‘Ortenauer’ – 22.8% and ‘Belle de Louvain’х ‘Čačanska lepotica’ – 21.9%. The results obtained suggested that the largest number of hybrid seeds in plum (P. domestica L.) breeding were obtained when cvs. ‘Althan’s Gage’, ‘Stanley’ and ‘Ortenauer’ were chosen as a mother parent and ‘Čačanska lepotica’, ‘Sineva’ and ‘Čačanska najbolja’ as a father parent (pollinator).