Production potential of coconut hybrids and their parents in relation to physiological parameters

摘要

Ever since the hybrid vigour was observed in 1932 in coconut, the increased potentiality is being exploited by the production of hybrid coconuts involving tall and dwarf varieties. Patel (1937) observed that the maximum vigour was obtained in coconut hybrid when the tall variety was used as female and dwarf as the male parent. High degree of allogamy does not permit to obtain genetically pure tails by inbreeding. Therefore the hybrid seedlings are to be chosen carefully in the nursery, so as to eliminate future trees with poor combination of physiological characters. Physiological and biochemical characters such as enzyme activity, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate, leaf area and dry matter production are the dependable characters and can be exploited to screen vigorous progenies in the nursery. Shivasankar and Ramadasan (1983) obtained a high positive correlation between nitrate reductase activity and annual nut yield in coconut genotypes. There is not much work has been reported in physiological aspects.