Heritability of Postharvest Longevity of Antirrhinum majus
Breeding for postharvest longevity of cut flowers has not been done to any great extent in spite of the potential benefits from reduced chemical preservative usage and increased popularity of cuts due to longer vaselife. Some studies have reported broad-sense heritabilities for postharvest longevity of 36% to 46% and narrow-sense heritabilities of 0% to 38%. Postharvest longevity of cut flowers of Antirrhinum majus L. (snapdragon) inbreds range from 2 to 16 d with the F1 hybrids intermediate at 8.1 d when evaluated in deionized water. It would appear postharvest longevity of snapdragon cut flowers should be a selectable trait. In an effort to determine narrow-sense heritability for postharvest longevity of snapdragon cut flowers, a generation means analysis was established using single-seed descent S4 generation inbreds with postharvest longevities of 2 and 15 d. Plants were grown in greenhouses at the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, in August and harvested in Nov. 1997 for postharvest evaluation. Experimental design was a randomized complete block with 2 environments and 3 replications. Nonsegregating generations (P1, P2, and F1) consisted of 10 plants per replication, backcrosses 30 plants per replication, and the F2 with 60 plants per replication. Data will be presented on narrow-sense heritability of postharvest longevity of snapdragon cut flowers.