Breeding of Vegetable, Spice and Tuber crops (2+1)

Mass Pedigree method

• This method consists of selection among individual plants and their progeny during inbreeding following crosses between selected donor parents. The parents are normally crossed in a single cross system. The F2 populations are subjected to selection for apparent desirable traits viz. days to maturity, plant type, plant height, resistance to diseases and other easily identifiable traits. The F3 progenies of the F2 plants are grown in rows. The most desirable F3 progeny rows are selected / marked followed by selection and harvesting of superior individual plants from each of the selected rows. This practice of selection among rows followed by selections within rows continued till F5/F6 generation in which desirable rows are bulked within themselves separately and these bulks/new breeding lines are evaluated in the replicated trial for further selection.


• In this method, best individuals with desired characters are selected on the basis of phenotypic performance in a source population. Open-pollinated seeds of the selected individual plants are divided into two halves.Second year replicated progeny row trial is conducted using one set of half seeds from each plant. On the basis of progeny performance, the best parental individuals are identified. The remnant half seeds from the superior parental plants are mixed and grown in isolation for random mating during the third year. This method is called line breeding when selection is based on progeny tests and a group of progeny lines is composited. The name, mass pedigree method was given by S.S. Rajan.