Papaya breeding – a conventional approach

Papaya, as an object of breeding, has a few peculiarities.
It is neither a typical tree crop nor a typical annual crop.
As an example, most tropical and subtropical tree crops such as litchi, avocado and mango have generation times spanning many years in contrast to papaya where it is less than 18 months.
Conversely, annual crops have a characteristic generation time of less than six months.
These peculiarities are also true for number of trees (plants) per unit area and productive life span of an orchard.
There is however at least one similarity between papaya and annual crops and that is the ease with which one can make controlled pollinations and even more importantly, the number of progeny obtained from each pollination attempt.
These peculiarities have a profound effect on the profitability and expense of a conventional papaya-breeding program.
The aim of this presentation is to highlight some practical considerations in a papaya-breeding program.

XXIX International Horticultural Congress on Horticulture: Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods and Landscapes (IHC2014): IV International Symposium on Papaya, VIII International Pineapple Symposium, and International Symposium on Mango

A.J. Louw

inbreeding, seed-production, sexuality

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1111.9