Evaluation of a New Thornless Strain of Mexican Lime (Citrus aurantifolia, Swingle) Under Kaferelsheikh Governorate Conditions, Egypt

Abstract

This work has been carried out to evaluate a new thornless strain of lime trees as compared with Mexican lime (local or Balady cultivar) planted at 5x5m and grown in clay soil at a private orchard at Kaferelsheikh Governorate during 2015 and 2016 seasons. The evaluation involved growth, flowering, seeds, yield and fruit parameters. The new strain revealed morphological characteristics distinct from the local cultivars but it had a small size of canopy which may be reflected in increasing the number of planted trees/ feddan. Fruits of the selected strain is distinguished by high percentage of juice acidity (7.2-8.2%), juice weight % (47.8-48.9%) over the local cultivar. Also, it was characterized as thornless trees with less seed number /fruit (2.06-2.23). DNA fingerprint was performed using RAPD technique for the molecular characterization. RAPD analyses exhibited a total of 42 bands with an average of 10.4 bands / primer when six primers were used. The polymorphism percentage (18%) was observed between the new strain and Mexican lime. The new lime strain is considered as a valuable genetic material for Egyptian citriculture industry.