A NEW TECHNIQUE FOR TOMATO HYBRID SEED PRODUCTION: DIRECT HAND-POLLINATION OF MALE-FERTILE BS LINES.

The authors propose a new technique of producing F₁ seeds based on hand pollination of intact flowers from a male-fertile seed-parent line genetically marked by the bs-trait.

The comparison between this technique and that involving both emasculation and pollination by hand was carried out in 1978 and 1979 using a male-fertile line homozygous for bs and c traits.
The new procedure offers the following advantages: better fruit set; higher number of seeds per fruit; negligible degree of F₁ seedling ‘contamination’ (% of selfing); a price-cost (estimated for 100 g of hybrid seeds) about 60% lower; and last, but not least, the practical use of any bs line endowed with good combining ability, without resorting to male sterility genes.

Symposium on Vegetable and Flower seed Production

A. Falavigna, M. Badino, G.P. Soressi, G. Bruzzone

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1981.111.5