Assessment of Poly cross Hybrids of Mulberry for Fruit and Seed Traits

摘要

Mulberry is a fast growing woody perennial tree that maintains high heterozygosity due to the out-breeding reproductive system. The success of breeding programme mainly depends on availability of genetic variability and selection of superior progenies. Polyclonal seed orchard is one of the sources for creating huge desirable genetic variability using natural hybridization with minimum effort for improvement of leaf yield and quality in mulberry. High bush polyclonal seed orchard was established usingtwenty nine parents (16 female 13 male) at CSRTI Berhampore. Morphological assessment of hybrid fruits and seeds were performed for two successive years (2020 2021). The results showed that significant differences among polycross hybrids in most ofthe fruit seed traits. Fruit weight varied from 0.63g (T-13) to 2.27g (Berhampore-A); fruit length varied from 1.58cm (T-13) to 2.65cm (CSRS-1); fruit width varied from 0.86cm (Matigera-black) to 1.32cm (Berhampore-A); seeds per fruit varied from 25 (C-2038) to 47 (Berhampore-A) and test weight varied from 1,25g (China-white) to 2.20g (C-2045). The highest seed set was recorded in C-2045 (91.95) followed by Sujanpur-5 (88.70). Highly significant positive correlation was observed between fruit weight fruit width (0.87); fruit weight fruit length (0.84); achenes per fruit seeds per fruit (0.72). A significant difference was recorded for seed germination among 16 polycross it varied from 70 per cent (China-white S-30) to 99 per cent (C-2038). After 60 days, germination was reduced more in Sujanpur-5 (92.5) and Bogura-4 (90.40). The information may be useful for the breeders to identify superior seedlings and creating heterozygous hybrid progenies in mulberry.