Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Emasculation is an important procedure in a sugar beet breeding program when other methods of ensuring controlled crosses are not possible. Complications for seed production from emasculated flowers have been found in the form of erratic seed set and germination rate, but the underlying cause is not fully known. Therefore humidity, stigma receptivity, and flower wounding were investigated as possible components of this issue on three different genotypes. The experiments aimed to investigate the effects of humidity and flower damage on seed quantity, seed quality, and stigma receptivity in different varieties of sugar beet at the DLF Beet Seed Research & Development facility in Landskrona. The results showed that increased humidity had a negative impact on seed quality but not seed quantity, although this effect varied among the different genotypes. The stigmas remained receptive across all varieties from the bud stage and up to 7 days after anthesis. Additionally, extensive damage to the flowers negatively affected both seed quantity and quality, but the seed set was only affected in one variety. The study concluded that increasing humidity for emasculated plants is not recommended, and the emasculation procedure itself may disrupt the flowers when damaged, resulting in inconsistent seed set and germination rates.