Intraspecific hybridization of low chill peach cultivars for superior fruit quality and their hybridity confirmation by SSR markers

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to develop of low chill peach hybrids for superior fruit quality during the year 2016 and 2017. Crosses were made between low chill peach cultivars, taking Flordaglo and Florda Crest as a female parent and Florda Prince, Florda Grand, Florda Crest and Yumyoeng as male parents. Among the hybrids, the maximum fruit set (59.28%) was observed in H3, while the minimum fruit set (38.56%) was recorded in H6. Among the parents crossed, the maximum fruit set (82.32%) and fruit retention (53.23%) was observed in Florda Prince while the minimum fruit set (56.42%) and fruit retention (33.56%) was noticed in Yumyoeng. In the low chill hybrids developed, fruit retention percent was recorded the maximum (74.50%) and the minimum (41.27%) in H1 and H4. Crosses of Florda Crest as female noticed the maximum fruit drop percentage with H5 having highest (74.61%) fruit drop percentage while hybrid H1 observed the minimum (25.84%) fruit drop percentage. Among the parents, Yumyoeng showed maximum (53.79%) while Florda Crest showed minimum (43.94%) fruit drop percentage. Seeds of hybrid H6 took the maximum days for stratification (77 days) while H2 took the minimum days for stratification (69 days). The minimum (10.30 days) and the maximum (15.58 days) number of days taken for seed germination was noticed in H3 and H5, respectively. After sowing the seeds in the protrays, H1 observed the maximum seed germination percentage (90.41%) while minimum (43.38%) percent of seed germination was recorded in H6. A significant variation was recorded between the traits viz., seedling height, intermodal length and rosetting percentage among different peach hybrids. Among the 22 SSR markers, only six markers (MA015a, MA020a, MA023a, CPPCT-022, CPPCT-030 and UDP96-005) were found to be able to test the hybridity of F1 seedling.