Rutabaga Breeding

Swedes and Turnips

“…The elimination of fodder swedes in North America led to a decline in the commercial area but this stabilized by 1990 at about 4,100 ha (Shattuck and Proudfoot, 1990). These authors gave a review of swede breeding focused more on human consumption than previous reviews.…”

“…As such, turnips are bred using outbreeding techniques, whereas swedes can be bred to some extent by either outbreeding or inbreeding techniques. In older breeding programs, swedes were treated as outbreeders and the general method used for most swede and turnip breeding has been inter-crossing of desirable parents and then simple mass selection or progeny selection (Frandsen, 1958;Shattuck and Proudfoot, 1990;Davik, 1997). More modern turnip breeding was dealt with in Section 5.1 where population improvement, leading to an open-pollinated cultivar 'Massif', and F 1 hybrid breeding in Japan, were covered.…”

“…If necessary, seed can harvested before the pods are fully ripe and then air dried. As long as 4-5 weeks have elapsed since pollination, green pods can be harvested and dried; smaller but viable seeds can be obtained (Shattuck and Proudfoot, 1990). The seed is usually fully developed by 30 days after pollination, and germination in the pod is inhibited by the seed coat; if the seed coat is removed at this stage embryo germination can take place.…”

“…Black crater (Rhizotonia solani) does not usually cause problems for fodder swedes, but can have a marked effect on culinary swedes. Storage diseases are associated with several bacterial diseases, including black rot (Xanthomonas campestris), bacterial soft rot (Erwinia carovora), and Pseudomonas flourescens (Shattuck and Proudfoot, 1990). Differential reaction of cultivars to most of these minor diseases has been noted and should, therefore, be amenable to breeding and selection, but they do not appear to have caused sufficient problems to warrant specific breeding programs being undertaken.…”

“…If the crops are lifted and stored, then the bulbs need to be resistant to storage rots and diseases (Shattuck and Proudfoot, 1990).…”