Breeding of Fruit and Plantation Crops

Breeding achievements in coconut

Coconut varieties released through selection

Sl. No.	Cultivar	Released under the name	State for which recommended
1	Laccadive Ordinary	Chandrakalpa	A.P., TN, Karnataka, Maharastra, and Kerala
2	Banawali Green Round	Pratap	Coastal Maharastra
3	Philippines Oridinary	Kerachandra	Coastal Maharastra, Coastal AP and WB.
4	Andaman Ordinary	VPM-3	All districts of Tamil Nadu


VPM 3

• It is a selection from material received from CPCRI, Kasaragod, Kerala. It yields 72-92 nuts and 15 kg copra per palm per year with high oil content. The duration is 80-100 years and suited to all districts of Tamil Nadu.

ALR (CN) 1

• It is single line selection from Arasampatti tall (Dharmapuri district) released from Coconut Research Station, Aliyar nagar. This variety comes to bearing in five years of planting and continues to bear and yield well up to 80 years. It is a drought tolerant, early bearer (5 years), high yielding, tall variety. 7645 nuts give one-ton copra. This variety tolerates the incidence of important pests of coconut. It is suitable under both rainfed and irrigated conditions.


ALR (CN) 2

• It is a selection from Tiptur tall with an average yield of 109 nuts/palm /year. Comes to bearing in 5½ years with regular bearing habit. It produces 12 inflorescences per year. The weight of copra is 135g/nut with an oil content of 64.7 per cent. It possesses drought tolerance and is moderately resistant to rhinoceros beetle, red palm weevil and leaf blight.

Hybrids

• The manifestation of heterosis or hybrid vigour in coconut was first reported from India in 1937. The intervarietal hybrids produced for commercial plantings are T x D and D x T with different parental combinations. These hybrids are gaining popularity because of their early bearing and high productivity. The plants are dwarf in stature and start yielding from 3-4 years after planting.
• Eg: Lakshaganga, Ananda Ganga, Chandra Laksha, Keraganga, Kerasree, VHC-1, VHC-2, etc.

B) Evaluation and release of Hybrids in coconut.
Steps involved in commercial production of coconut hybrids are as given below;

• Emasculation of male flowers before female flowers come to receptivity,
• Collection of mature male flowers
• Extracting pollen from male flowers
• Mixing of pollen with diluents in the ratio of 1:9
• Dusting of pollen + diluents mixture using a pollen dispensor
 
• Field performance of hybrids derived from different cross combinations of talls and dwarfs are due to the different combining ability of the parents. Hybrids gave 20 –40 % more number of nuts and 40 – 103 % copra /palm/year over local talls. Commercial production of hybrids has been undertaken in seed gardens established in Kerala, Karnataka, TN and Orissa.