TY - JOUR AU - Goenaga, Ricardo AU - Hepperly, Paul PY - 1990/07/01 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Flowering induction, pollen and seed viability and artificial hybridization of taniers (Xanthosoma spp.) JF - The Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico JA - JAUPR VL - 74 IS - 3 SE - Articles DO - 10.46429/jaupr.v74i3.6657 UR - https://revistas.upr.edu/index.php/jaupr/article/view/6657 SP - 253-260 AB - <p>Natural flowering and seed set in tanier (<em>Xanthosoma</em> spp.) is rare and limits improvement of the crop through hybridization. A study was conducted to induce uniform flowering with gibberelic acid (GA) in several species of <em>Xanthosoma</em> and to manually pollinate flowers to obtain true botanical seeds. Pollen and seed viability was also studied. Uniform flowering of plants was induced by foliar applications of a 500 mg/L solution of GA. Successful pollinations produced fruits that ripened in about 45 days and resulted in the production of 12 FT hybrid combinations and three selfed pollinations. Germination rates of tanier seeds always exceed 85% after a storage of more than 7 months at 8 ± °C and 80% relative humidity. Viability tests showed that pollen stored at 8 ± °C and 80% relative humidity could remain viable for about 8 days; however, the storage period was strongly dependent on pathogen interaction with the pollen grain.</p> ER -