Assessment of table grape progenies and correlation between seedlessness and other agronomic traits

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to identify grape parent varieties that lead to greater frequency of seedless genotypes in the progenies and to understand the relationships between the seedless trait and other fruit traits. A group of 200 hybrids (F1) originating from 38 crosses among cultivars of Vitis vinifera L. and interspecific hybrids were evaluated in Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil, over six consecutive crop seasons (2018 to 2021). The progenies were placed in three classes based on seedlessness: completely seedless (class 1), seed traces or soft seeds (class 2), and with seeds (class 3). The mean dry matter of the seeds in each class was 0 mg, 2.3 mg, and 25.7 mg respectively, which corresponded to 40 genotypes (20%) in class 1, 52 genotypes (26%) in class 2, and 108 (54%) in class 3. The interspecific cross ‘BRS Isis’ and ‘Marroo Seedless’ stood out through favoring high frequency of seedless individuals in the progeny (47.5%). The traits associated with berry size (length, diameter, and weight) had high positive correlations with each other. The results obtained make an important contribution for table grape breeding aiming at the development of new table grape cultivars.