Breeding methods and achievements

Breeding methods and achievements

    Clonal Selection
    • Propagation by seeds during early days gave rise to considerable variation in the form and size of fruit, the nature and flavour of pulp, seediness and other morphological characters such as spreading or erect growth habit of the tree. Improvement work in guava was started for the first time in the country in 1907 at Ganesh khand fruit Research Station, Pune primarily with the collection of seeds of varieties, grown in different places to isolate superior strains. About 600 seedlings were raised and evaluated for fruit and yield characters. One strain from open pollinated seedlings of Allahabad Safeda collected from Lucknow was selected and released as Lucknow -49 which is a popular variety throughout India.At Horticultural Research Station, Saharanpur, evaluation of seedling types resulted in a superior selection, S-1, having good fruit shape, few seeds, sweet taste and high yield.

    • At Narendara Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad, out of the 23 strains collected as a result of survey in guava growing region, 3 seedlings of Allahabad Safeda (AS1,AS2,AS) and 2 of Faizabad Selections (FS1and FS2) were found to be promising with respect to fruit quality and yield. At IIHR, Bangalore, from 200 open pollinated seedlings of variety Allahabad Safeda collected from Uttar Pradesh, one seedling selection, selection-8, was found to be promising. These plants are dwarf and give higher yield. The fruits are of medium size with white pulp and few soft seeds and excellent. This selection has been named as Arka Mridula.
    Achievements
    Sl.No Varieties Important characters
    1. L.49 Developed at GFES, Pune, Seedling selection of Allahabad Safeda, Semi dwarf tree, high yielding and white flesh.
    2. Banarsi Surkha It is a selection from local red fleshed type, heavy bearer, large fruits, flesh soft and pink.
    3. CISHG-1 Developed at CISH, Lucknow. Fruit skin colour is deep red, TSS 15°Brix, soft seeds.
    4. Bangalore Local It is a local selection, with white flesh and soft seeds, fruit is large.
    5. Arka Mirudula
    (Sel -8)     		Developed at CISH, Lucknow, it is a selection from apple colour seedling, skin and flesh colour is pink with good acid sugar blend.
    6. Plant prabhat Seedling selection from GBPUAT, Pantnagar, Prolific bearer, soft seed with good quality

    Hybridization
    • At IIHR, Bangalore, as a result of hybridization among Allahabad Safeda, Red Flesh Chittidar, Apple colour, Lucknow-49 and Bananas, 600 F1 hybrids were raised. One hybrid Arka Amulya has been released recently. It is a progeny from the cross Allahabad Safeda x Triploid. Plants are medium in vigour and are spreading type. Fruits are round in shape. Skin is smooth and yellow in colour. Fruits on an average weigh about 180-200 g, Flesh is white in colour and firm. TSS is around 12˚Brix, soft seeded, keeping quality is good. Hybrid 16-1 (Apple color x Allahabad safeda) has been developed. Plants are semi vigorous, moderate yielding, fruit skin bright red with few seeds high Tss and good keeping quality (Subramanyam and I year, 1993).At Fruit Research Station, Sangareddy (Andhra Pradesh), inter-varietal hybridization resulted in the isolation of two superior hybrids.
    • Safed Jam: This is a hybrid between Allahabad Safeda and Kohir (a local collection from Hyderabad –karnataka region). It is similar to Allahabad Safeda in growth habit and fuit quality. The fruits are bigger in size with good quality and few soft seeds.
    • Kohir Safeda: It is a hybrid between Kohir x Allahabad Safeda, Tree is vigorous, fruits are larger with few soft seeds and white flesh.Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar has released two hybrid varieties.
    • Hisar Safeda: It is a cross between”Allahabad Safeda” x ‘Seedless’, which has upright growth with a compact crown. Its fruits are round, weighing about 92g each, pulp is creamy – white with less seeds, which are soft, TSS is 13.4% and ascorbic acid 185 mg/100g.
    • Hisar Surkha: It is a cross between’Apple Colour’ x ‘Banarasi Surka’. Tree is medium in height with broad to compact crown , fruit is round weighing 86g each. Pulp is pink having 13.6% TSS.0.48% acidity and 169 mg/100g ascorbic acid. Yield is 94 kg/tree/year.
    • CISH, Lucknow isolated two hybrids H-136 for red pulp and soft seeler with high Tss.
    Breeding for wilt resistance
    • Work at CISH, Lucknow has shown that Chittidar, Portugal, Seedless and Spear Acid are tolerant to wilt.
    • Resistance species of guava can be utilized for imparting the wilt resistant character. It was observed that psidium guajava and psidium chinensis are compatible. However, cross between psidium guajava and psidium molle was incompatible but reciprocal combination was a compatible combination (subramanyam and I year, 1982).
    Polyploidy Breeding
    • Producing triploids will be futile since the fruit shape in triploid is highly irregular and misshapen because of differential seed size. However, in order to evolve varieties with less seeds and increased productivity, crosses were made at IARI, New Delhi, between seedless triploid and seeded diploid variety Allahabad Safeda. Of the 73 F1 hybrids raised 26 were diploids, 9 trisomics 5 double trisomics and 13 tetrasomics. Distinct variation in tree growth habit and leaf and fruit characters was observed. Three trisomic plants had dwarf growth habit and normal shape and size of fruits with few seeds. The imbalance in chromosome numbers in aneuploids imparted sterility resulting in seed reduction in fruits.
    • Characteristics of important species and cultivars

    Description of some important species are as under:
    Psidium guineense
    • This is also known as the Guinea guava or Brazilian guava. The plants are like shrub or small tree. The leaves are green in colour, broad, oblong-oval, acute or obtuse, 8-12 cm long with lower surface pubescent. Red hairs are found on the mid veins.
    Psidium guineense
    Psidium montanum
    • Plants are just like shrub, attain a height of about 1.5m, flat round branches. It is found in mountains of Jamaica. Fruits are round with very poor quality
    Psidium montanum
    Psidium fredrichsthalianum
    It is known as Chinese guava. Plants are tall (7-11 m height), fruits are small and globose in shape with high acid content. It can be used for jelly making. Plants are tolerant to guava wilt.

    Psidium Cattleanum
    • It is known as the Cattely guava or Strawberry guava. It is a shrub or small tree (3-6 m in height), fruits are small, deep scarlet in colour, and globose in shape. This species is more tolerant to low temperature than Psidium guajava.

    Psidium cattleianum var. lucidum
    • Tree height is more than Cattley guava in Hawai Island. Height of plant is noticed up to 12m. Generally, it is propagated through seeds. Fruits are yellow in colour and used for jelly making.

    Psidium molle
    • Tree is medium in height, leaves are green and oval in shape. Apex of leaf is pointed, lower part of leaves is velvety in appearance. Red hairs are found on the central veins. In one leaf 6-8 pairs of primary veins are found. Petals are 5-11, stamens are 196-239, stigma is long with big ovary of 3-5 chambers. Fruits are small in size, average fruit weight is 13g. It contains vitamin C about 70 mg/100 g of pulp

    Psidium pumilum
    • It is also known as Chinese guava. Tree is like pyramidal in shape, leaves are light in colour, small in size, non-pubescent, having 13-17 pairs of primary veins. Petals 7 smooth and creamy colour which drop immediately after anthesis, Stamens are 252-327 in number, small stigma with medium size of ovary having 4-5 chambers. It flowers twice in a year. It takes about 130 days for attaining the maturity of fruits. Average fruit weight is about 19g and an average vitamin C content is 171mg/100g pulp.

    Psidium cujavilis
    • Growth characters and flowering habit of the plants is just like Psidium guineense. The size of fruit is small to medium, average weight is 30-50 g, and sour in taste.

    Psidium policarpum
    • The growth characters are similar to Psidium guajava except the shape of the fruits is pyriform. Average fruit weight is about 200-250g. Flavonoid patterns show close affinity between P.guajava and P.molle (Dass and Prakash, 1981). However, inspite of the morphological similarities in P.molle and P.guineense, they showed minute differences in flavonoid pattern

Last modified: Saturday, 9 June 2012, 5:33 AM