By J. Ollivier, R. Bourdeix and XXXX??, 2019 - In construction
Extract from the text of a PNG newspaper – Post courier, 11th June 1997 (see image)
General objective if the coconut breeding program was to develop hybrids with high yielding abilities and improved precocity, improve and develop better parents for: hybridization and test them for plant resistance to the major insect pests.
The aim of the section was to create a range of Dwarf x Tall and Tall x Tall hybrids with the •establishment and follow-up for a coconut germplasm collection and of general combining ability trials (Dwarfs x Talls).
From the prospection survey done at the beginning of the years 1990s (with Aciar collaboration), a collection of representative sample of the geographic and phenotypic diversity (mainly on the base of the fruit characteristics) has been made. To date, 40 Tall populations and 11 Dwarf have been field planted.
The
redevelopment of Omuru seedgarden started end of 1992 with the poisoning of
most of the coconut stands except around
2.3ha or 415 palms (207 Malayan Red Dwarf, 164 Malayan Yellow Dwarf and 44 PNC
Brown Dwarf) which were used for the crossing program.
Assisted
pollination was the way chosen to produce various hybrids in a short time with
a good number of seednuts and good legitimacy and was preferred to artificial
pollination as Ornuru condition in term of isolation is excellent.
The method consisted emasculating all the coconut palms, do fertilisation with a selected pollen on receptive female flowers on the first inflorescence for a period of 3 to 4 weeks, then stop fertilisation for one week, then start again to fertilise the second inflorescence with another pollen, and so on
This assisted pollination method was carried out at Omuru during the period from March 1993 to w September 95. A total of 25 types of pollen of various origins were used during this period which allow to produce 75 different progenies of hybrids.
To date all
the progeny crosses have been harvested and raised in nurseries. 322 progenies
have been planted in statistical design experiment at SRS. Some crosses especially
the, PBD crosses which didn't reach the number for statistical design were
planted in progeny rows at SRS for observation only (8 for them). The remaining
progenies (35) are still in the nurseries waiting to be transplanted in
experiments or progeny rows for observation. As it takes about 12 months from
pollination to harvesting, the hybrid seeds from the above crossing program
were harvested in the period March 1994 to October 96 (30 months).
Most of the
seeds harvested at Omuru have been transferred to Stewart Research Station and
sown in seedbeds for period of 3 months, and transplanted into polybags within
this period. A preselection occurred at the seedbed level to discard the
illegitimated and abnormal sprouts. Some material was shipped to Kerevat to
test the hybrid material under high beetle pressure conditions.
A total of
6,332 seeds from 30 different crosses were dispatched to Kerevat. Some seeds
were also used to set up demonstration plots mainly in Madang province and
Buka. The main problem to ship seeds outside the province is the cost of
shipment.
Within the Tall populations collected, some of them have been chosen study the general combination with Dwarf testors. The crossing programs has been implemented from March 1993 to September 1995 at the Omuru seed garden on three types of dwarf (MYD, MRD and PBD). Pollen from 25 origins allowed to realise 75 different crosses. Three General Combining Ability trials with a total of 32 different hybrids have -been already planted at Stewart Research Station for testing. The regional role of the station should be developed in the future, with the IPGRI-COCENT support to host the Pacific region germplasm collection.
Note from Roland: where to find the results of these trials?
