Evaluation of dragon fruit seedlings

• Grant number: 11/17171-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: February 28, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Baldo Geraldo Martins
• Grantee: Adriana de Castro Correia da Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Among the exotic fruit with a high potential for commercialization, is the dragon fruit, cactus indigenous to the rainforests of Mexico, Central America and South America, whose cultivation is spreading rapidly in many tropical and subtropical countries due to its precocity and ability to adaptation and acceptance in the market. Because it is a culture not well known, there is need for selection of plants better adapted to the environment and organoleptic characteristics that meet the consumer market, so you can maximize the economic exploitation of culture. The mass selection based on visual observation of the phenotype of the plant, allows individuals to identify potentially interesting for a breeding program. In this light, the experiment has been conducted at Ripado de Fruticultura of FCAV - Unesp,Jaboticabal-SP. Controlled manual crosses were made between Hylocereus undatus x H. polyrhizus and H. undatus x Selenicereus setaceus. The fruits from these crosses were harvested and the seeds germinated and the seedlings that present a better development will be selected to be cultivated in the field when they will be evaluated as the development of seedlings, morphology and phenology, aiming to select those who are most promising for use in breeding programs and desirable characteristics for cultivation and marketing.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SILVA, Adriana de Castro Correia da. Pitaya: melhoramento e produção de mudas. 2014. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias. Jaboticabal Jaboticabal.