Determination of Fertility-Related Traits in Muscadine Grape Population.

In this study, fertility-related traits of 90 muscadine grape genotypes were evaluated. Selected genotypes included 21 standard cultivars, 60 breeding lines, and nine hybrids (VM hybrids). The first fruiting bud (FFB), bud fertility (BF), bud fertility coefficient (BFC), number of flowers/flower cluster (N.F/FC), fruit-set efficiency (FSE), number of clusters/vine (N.C/V), and yield/vine (Y/V) traits were evaluated. The FFB trait did not show significant differences among genotypes. The muscadine genotype O28-4-2-2 (1.6 ± 0.2) displayed the FFB closest to the base; however, O17-16-2-1, O18-2-1, and VM A12-10-2 genotypes had the most distant FFB (3.6 ± 0.3). All the other fertility-related traits varied widely among the population. The BF, BFC, N.F/FC, FSE, N.C/V, and Y/V exhibited a range estimated at 35.1%, 81.5%, 259.7, 63.3%, 177 C/V, and 22.3 kg/V, respectively. The muscadine genotypes O42-3-1 (36.7% ± 1.3) and Majesty (34% ± 1.2) exhibited the highest BF; however, the VM A12-10-2 (1.6% ± 0.1) recorded the lowest BF. The VM genotype O15-16-1 (82.8% ± 4.1) displayed the highest BFC; however, the VM A12-10-2 (1.3% ± 0.1) showed the lowest BFC. The muscadine genotypes D7-1-1 (280.3 F/FC ± 21.7) and O17-17-1 (20.7 F/FC ± 5.5) showed the highest and lowest N.F/FC, respectively. The maximum and minimum FSE was observed for the Rosa cultivar (65.7% ± 2.4) and muscadine genotype D7-1-1 (2.4% ± 0.2), respectively. The minimum N.C/V was recorded for VM genotype A12-10-2 (6 C/V ± 0.2) and maximum noted for muscadine genotypes B20-18-2 (183 C/V ± 7.5) and O44-14-1 (176 C/V ± 7.3). Muscadine genotype O23-11-2 (22.6 kg ± 1.1) produced the highest Y/V; however, the lowest yield was recorded for O15-17-1, Fry Seedless, Sugargate, and the VM genotypes and A12-10-2, with an average yield among them estimated at 0.4 kg ± 0.2.