BREEDING PROGRAMMES FOR PROTEACEAE CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT

Competition in floriculture is rapidly increasing in the form of improved cultivars and whole new cut flower crops.
The slow growing protea is therefore urgently in need of imaginative genetic improvement.

Severe bottlenecks in current breeding technology include inability to hybridize between species, low hybrid seed set and lack of pollen storage techniques.
Inefficient evaluation of new breeding products (regional selection) slows down local and international commercial introduction of improved cultivars.
To break the pattern of breeding via accidental discoveries, future research should address these problems through concerted and cooperative effort.
Instrumental to this is the basic level study of protea reproductive biology and embryo rescue technology.
The breeding advantage of the great natural protea gene pool must be exploited systematically for the development of market oriented cultivars.

International Workshop on Intensive Cultivation of Protea

G.J. Brits

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1992.316.2