Parent selection for oil palm clonal seed gardens
1992
Breure, C.J. (Harrisons Fleming Advisory Services, London (United Kingdom)) | Konimor, J. (Dami Oil Palm Research Station, Kimbe (Papua New Guinea))
Quantitative genetical information on the selection of elite oil palm families in three steps was derived from records of dura female and pisifera male parents and their offspring, planted at Dami Oil Palm Reserach Station, Papua New Guinea. These three steps were :- (1) selection of dura and pisifera parents on the basis of their performance per se; (2) progeny testing of these provisionally selected parents to determine their General Combining Ability (GCA) values and (3) testing of families obtained by intercrossing parents finally selected on the basis of GCA values, and identification of elite families. Guidelines for single palm selection were obtained from a multiple regression analysis, using as predictors (1) oil-and-kernel yield and (2) Harvest Index (HI) of the offspring, GCA values of parental palm for leaf Mg-content (LMg), height, leaf area ration (LAR), leaf area, frond production, rachis length, frond weight, vegetative dry matter production (VDM), and the relative rate of increase in the logistic equation of leaf area against age (k). This showed that HI may be increased by selection for high LAR, LMg and k; and low frond production. Reducing frond production may also increase oil-and-kernel yield per palm, but the main predictors of these yield characters were leaf and height. As these two traits mainly determine the ability to compete for light with neighbouring palms, it is concluded that leaf area and height should be taken into account when selection for yield per palm is at issue. Significant correlations between female parents and offspring (i.e. heritability in standard units) were found for oil-to-bunch ratio (0.60), kernel-to-bunch ratio (0.94), height increment (0.46), LAR (0.56), leaf area (0.58), frond production (0.53) and LMg (0.46). Significant heritabilities were also found for these characters from the square of the correlation between GCA- and phenotypic values, except for LMg. None of these correlations were significant for bunch yield
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