Performance of Three Selection Cycles from Four Slicing Cucumber Populations Hybridized with a Tester

Abstract

Recurrent selection has been used as a breeding method to improve traits having low heritability such as fruit yield, earliness, and fruit shape. The objective of this study was to measure the progress of recurrent selection in four slicing cucumber populations in terms of hybrid performance when crossed with a common tester. The four populations, North Carolina wide-base slicer (NCWBS), medium-base slicer (NCMBS), elite slicer 1 (NCES1), and Beit Alpha 1 (NCBA1) populations, which differed in their genetic diversity and mean performance, were developed using modified intrapopulation half-sib recurrent selection to improve fruit yield and quality. Eleven S0 families were taken randomly from each of three selection cycles (early, intermediate, and advanced) from each population. Those families were self-pollinated to form S1 families, and the S1 families were crossed to `Poinsett 76', a popular slicing cucumber cultivar. The experiment was a splitplot treatment arrangement in a randomized complete-block design with 22 replications per population, with the four populations as whole plots and the three cycles as subplots. When 10% of fruit were oversized (>60 mm in diameter), plants were sprayed with paraquat to defoliate them for once-over harvest. Plots were evaluated for total, early, and marketable yield and fruit shape. Recurrent selection for improved fruit yield and shape per se resulted in improved hybrid performance of the NCWBS and NCBA1 populations for fruit yield and shape rating when tested in the selected or nonselected environment. The NCWBS population had the largest gain (21%) in hybrid performance averaged over all traits. In addition, early yield was improved an average of 18% from early to late cycles for each population. Even though the fruit yield and shape rating of `Dasher II' was greater than the hybrid performance of each population mean for the same traits, several F1 families within each population exceeded the fruit yield of `Dasher II'.