Homogenisation of the old cucumber variety ‘Dindona Zalie Kekaru’

Abstract

Due to quite a high morphological heterogeneity among plants of the old Latvian cucumber variety ‘Dindoòa Zaïie Íekaru’, the homogenisation of the variety was started at the Pure Horticultural Research Station in 1994, both by inbreeding and sibling. Genotypes best conforming to the original description of the variety were selected. Five generations of inbreeding and three generations of sibling were evaluated. Particular traits had a different response to selection. For example, fruit development in clusters, which is a characteristic feature of the variety, showed a high response to inbreeding: the percentage of plants with fruits developed in clusters increased from 3.9% to 92.3%. In contrast, such traits as plant length and branching were manifested typically at the beginning of homogenisation and were not changed during inbreeding and sibling. The best lines were selected for seed propagation and included in the Latvian Gene Bank of Cultivated Plants for long-term preservation. Keywords: cucumber, Cucumis sativus L., inbreeding, sibling, gene bank