GERMINATION AND SEEDLING PERFORMANCE OF SOME SELECTED COCONUT HYBRID CROSSES

Abstract

Dwarf coconut populations, namely: Orange Dwarf (OD), Coconiño (CCN), Lingkuranay (LKY) and Tacunan (TAC) were pollinated by controlled hand pollination technique with Baybay Tall (BAY) as the common male parent to study the hybrid vigor of the resulting hybrids. Compared with their corresponding female parents, seedlings of OD x BAY, CCN x BAY and LKY x BAY exhibited hybrid vigor in terms of germination rate, girth size, height, and time from shoot emergence to leaf splitting. In addition, leaf production rate was faster in OD x BAY and in CCN x BAY than their corresponding female parents. For TAC x BAY seedlings, the expression of hybrid vigor was evident only in height and girth size.