SEEDLING HEIGHT AS A PRE-SELECTION CRITERION FOR SHORT JUVENILE PERIOD IN OLIVE SEEDLINGS

Juvenile period has been considered as a major drawback in olive breeding.
One strategy to reduce its effect is to eliminate those genotypes with long juvenile period, as a high variability for this character has been found in olive progenies.
Selection test that could identify, in an early stage, genotypes that will have a long juvenile period could be of great interest for olive breeding.
In the present work, a high correlation between height measured in the greenhouse (when average height was 130 cm) and the length of the juvenile period has been found.
This could permit to discard more than 20% seedlings at greenhouse stage and, therefore, increase the efficiency in olive breeding programs.
This selection would be also effective if plants are transplanted to the field earlier, even when average height was 50 cm.
Height measured in the greenhouse was also correlated with height in successive years in field, but no with agronomic traits as yield, fruit weight or oil content.

V International Symposium on Olive Growing

A.I. Kiran, P. Rodríguez, C. Ariza, D. Barranco, L. Rallo, R. de la Rosa, L. León

Olea europaea L., breeding, negative selection

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.791.6