Breeding of pomegranate, origin, distribution of pomegranate, breeding objectives, varieties, germplasm

1. BREEDING OF
POMEGRANATE
Lecture #8

2. •Botanical name: Punica granatum L.
•Family: Punicaceae
•Chromosome number : 2n = 2x =18
•Origin: Iran

3. • Centre of diversity
• Pomegranate is native of Iran and cultivated
extensively in the Mediterranean countries like
Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan and
Baluchistan.
• It is also grown to some extent in Burma, China,
Japan, USA, USSR and India.

4. • Germplasm resources
• Being cross pollinated crop, a lot of variability exists
in seedling populations, which can be utilized in
further improvement programme.
• At present 150 genotypes of pomegranate have
been maintained at Central Institute of Arid
Horticulture, Bikaner.
• Out of these genotypes, 55 are deciduous and rest
95 are of evergreen in nature.
• Field gene banks of pomegranate are maintained at
Abohar, Rahuri, Bikaner, Bangalore, Allahabad,
Jodhpur and Ludhiana.

5. • Objectives
• To develop suitable types which produce small soft
seeds with attractive red (pink) aril.
• To develop easily manageable upright growth habit of
the tree.
• To develop thornlessness in the twigs, a desirable
character as it helps in cultural management of the
tree.
• To develop varieties resistant to fruit borer (Virachola
isocrates) and fruit rot (Phomopsis sp.)
• To develop varieties free from fruit cracking, aril
blackening.
• Identification and development of suitable varieties for
cold arid region.
• Varieties with longer steerage life.

6. • Breeding methods and achievements
• Some important cultivars including soft seeded ,
dark red grained types, viz. Wonderful from the
USA.
• A.Males, Be Hastah, A Alah, A Agha, Mohammed
Ali, A Post Sephid Sirin from Iran.
• Ranninj G-1-8-23, Rannyij G-1-3-34, Chereny,
Gulsha Red, JG-1-8-7 from USSR and few cultivars
from Tunisia have been introduced.
• At Hisar, cultivar Shirin Anar and Russian Seedling
were found resistant to bacterial leaf spot.
• A pomegranate line of Iranian origin has been
identified at Rahuri which has dark pink arils, soft
seeds and high TSS.

7. Selection:
• On the basis of yield and physico-chemical
characters of fruits, number of cultivars have been
recommended for commercial cultivation in
different states of India,viz.
• Ganesh, G-137,P-23,P-26 and Muscat in
Maharashtra,
• Bassein Seedless, Jyothi and Madhugiri in
Karnataka, Dholka in Gujarat,
• Jalore Seedless, Jodhpur Red , and Jodhpuri White
in Rajasthan and
• Kabul Red, Vellodu, Yercaud 1, and Co-1 in
TamilNadu.

8. • Clonal Selection
• G-137 is a superior clonal selection over Ganesh,
other clones are also superior i.e.G-107,G-132,G-
133.
• Hybridization
• In order to incorporate blood red color of Russian
types into Ganesh, several crosses were made at
Rahuri in 1976.
• seven had deep red aril color but the seeds were
hard and inferior in taste than Ganesh.
• A promising line from the F2 population (No.61)
combining desirable quality attributes has been
released by the name Mridula (Ganesh x Gulsha
Rose Pink).