Relation between fruit early ripening and degree of seed dehydration in peaches

Abstract

An experiment was performed at the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, SP, Brazil, to determine the relation between fruit precociusness and degree of seed dehydration of 18 peach cultivar (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) after exposure at room temperature for 96 hours. Results showed that the earlier the ripening period, the more drastic is seed dehydration. Loss of seed weight ranged from 89.6 to 46.4% for the earliest and latest muturing cultivar, respectively. The important implications of these findings to the peach breeding program are the following: a) peach cultivars could be adequately classified as to maturation period and, b) an appropriate method of seed germination could be established for each cultivar.