Performance and stability of homogeneous and heterogeneous broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck) varieties in organic and low-input conditions

• Published in: Euphytica Vol. 199; no. 3; pp. 385 - 395
• Main Authors: Torricelli, Renzo, Ciancaleoni, Simona, Negri, Valeria
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-10-2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adaptability; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Climatic conditions; Environmental conditions; Flowers & plants; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; Genotypes; Life Sciences; Organic chemistry; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Variance analysis; Varietal selection. Specialized plant breeding, plant breeding aims; Vegetables; Broccoli; Sustainable agriculture; Stability; Landraces; G × E interaction; Synthetic varieties; Brassica oleracea var. italica; Low input agriculture; Landrace(plant); Heterogeneity; G × E interaction; Brassica oleracea; Vegetable crop; Genotype environment interaction; Cruciferae; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Genetic improvement; Spermatophyta; Synthetic variety
• ISSN: 0014-2336; 1573-5060
• DOI: 10.1007/s10681-014-1139-8

Organic (OA) and low-input (LI) farming rely on genotypes with high adaptability that maintain good performance over a broad range of agronomic and environmental conditions. Two synthetic varieties of
Brassica oleracea
var.
italica
Plenck (broccoli) were developed from a landrace. Their performance and stability under LI and OA farming conditions were then assessed and compared to a F1 hybrid variety. Identical experiments were carried out over a period of 2 years in three locations in Italy having different management and pedo-climatic conditions. Initially, an analysis of variance, carried out using a linear mixed model (LMM), with “Genotype” (“G”) and “Location” (“L”) as fixed factors and “Year” (“Y”) as a random factor, showed that the “Genotype” effect was significant for days to heading (DH), head number (HN), plant diameter (PD), plant vigour (PV) and plant height (PH). The “L” effect was significant for PD and PV. “G × L” interaction was significant for DH, PV and for yield. To obtain a better understanding of entry performances across years and locations, each location—year combination was considered as “Environment” and the additive main effects and multiplicative interaction analysis was used to dissect the “G × E” interaction. Synthetic varieties had good performances and always had a higher stability than the F1 hybrid. The data discussed in this study suggest that heterogeneous varieties developed from adapted materials are suitable for OA and LI because of their stability.