MSc

The research programme entitled “Varietal evaluation and development of hybrids in Phalaenopsis orchids” was undertaken in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, during 2018-2020. The objective of the study was to assess the genetic variability of Phalaenopsis orchids and to improve them through intervarietal hybridization.
The first experiment was varietal evaluation wherein ten genotypes of Phalaenopsis, King Car Purple Queen, Lianher Happy Song, Fullers Rabbit, Lianher Orange, Fullers, Taisuco Fire Bird x King Hisang Rose, Reyoung Gold, Jiuhbao Venus, Wang Lin Rose and Young Home Golden having good market value and cut flower qualities were evaluated in the green house using completely randomized design. The analysis of variance revealed that significant difference exists among the parental genotypes with respect to the majority of biometric characters studied. Vegetative characters such as leaf area, plant height, number of leaves and leaf width exhibited the highest estimates of variance at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. Among the floral traits, length of inflorescence, number of flowers per inflorescence, vase life, internodal length of the peduncle and days to first flower opening from inflorescence emergence showed the highest genotypic and phenotypic variances.
Floral characters like length of inflorescence, flower longevity on the plant, days to first flower opening from inflorescence emergence, length of flower, width of the flower and internodal length of peduncle as well as vegetative characters like plant height, leaf width and leaf area showed high heritability. Many of the characters exhibited high genetic advance (> 20%); the highest value was observed for length of the inflorescence followed by leaf area. High heritability (>70%) combined with high genetic advance (>20%) was exhibited by majority of the characters under study like days to first flower opening from inflorescence emergence, flower longevity on the plant and vase life.
The genotypic, phenotypic and environmental correlations of the ten parental genotypes were studied for eleven biometric characters. High positive correlation at
genotypic and phenotypic levels was observed between most of the vegetative and floral characters studied. Highly significant positive correlations were exhibited by length of the flower with number of flowers per inflorescence, length of inflorescence with number of inflorescence and number of flowers per inflorescence with vase life.
The second experiment was hybridization and compatibility analysis. Intercrossing in all possible combinations involving the three best parental genotypes of Phalaenopsis selected based on inflorescence characters was done. Jiuhbao Venus, Young Home Golden and Lianher Orange were selected for intercrossing. All nine possible combinations including three selfs, three crosses and three reciprocals were attempted.
Out of the nine crosses, four combinations succeeded in producing harvestable green capsules. They are Jiuhbao Venus x Young Home Golden, Jiuhbao Venus x Lianher Orange, Young Home Golden x Jiuhbao Venus and Young Home Golden x Lianher Orange. The highest strength of incompatibility was exhibited by Lianher Orange. Germination in vitro was observed for the four combinations from which the green capsules were successfully harvested. These hybrid combinations can be utilized for further crop improvement programmes.