Yellow Spray Rose Cultivar ‘Egg Tart’ with High Productivity and Suitable for Export

Abstract

The yellow spray rose cultivar ‘Egg Tart’ was bred by crossing the pink spray rose cultivar ‘Pink Sensation’ and the yellow spray rose cultivar ‘Orange Jam’ in 2012 at the Flower Research Institute of Gyeongnam Agricultural Research and Extension Services for cut flower exports. ‘Egg Tart’ has a weak sensibility for Botrytis cinerea, good transportability and good productivity (registration number: 7791). The flower shape of ‘Egg Tart’ was irregular. The leaf was thick with a strong gloss. There were 15 leaves per stem, and the leaf length was 12.3 cm, which was smaller than the control variety, ‘Yellow Tea’. Morphologically, ‘Egg Tart’ leaves were not as large in the wave shape of the edge of the leaf, and there was a small oval in the front end of the leaf that was narrow, as compared to the control cultivar. The cut flower yield of ‘Egg Tart’ was 152 stems (m2/year). The cut flower length was 78 cm, with a petal number of 78.8, and a vase life of 14.4 days, which was superior to the control variety. In order to confirm the possibility of ‘Egg Tart’ as an export variety, field demonstration tests have been conducted with the same yellow variety ‘Yellow Babe’ in the rose exporter’s greenhouse for three years starting in 2017, and the cut f lowers produced were shipped to the domestic and Japanese market. The results of the test showed that cut flower yields and flower numbers per stem were not different between the two varieties, but cut flower length, flower diameter and market price of ‘Egg Tart’ were higher than ‘Yellow Babe’. The domestic and Japanese market price were 845 won and 758 won per stem, respectively. In order to confirm the sensitivity of ‘Egg Tart’ against gray mold, artificially inoculated Botrytis cinerea were examined to investigate the incidence and spread of the disease. As a result, ‘Yellow Babe’, a control variety, was confirmed to be infected from the first day after inoculation with the pathogens, but ‘Egg Tart’ was infected from the second day. On the fourth day after inoculation, ‘Yellow Babe’ was 100% infected, but ‘Egg Tart’ was only 38.9% infected. In conclusion, the yellow spray rose ‘Egg Tart’ could be used as a substitute for the existing export variety ‘Yellow Babe’.