Papaya, Carica papaya L. is one of the major fruit crops

cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical zones. According

to 2009-2010 estimates, papaya is grown in 95,700 ha

with an annual production of 39,13,500 metric tons and

productivity of 40.9 metric tons per hectare (Anonymous,

2010). Improvement of any crop depends on the chosen

parents for hybridization programme. Hence, evaluation of

varieties is very important. An experiment was carried out to

evaluate intervarietal progenies of Arka Surya and Arka

Prabhath (Arka Surya x Tainung-1) Local Dwarf for various

plant and fruit characteristics, to locate useful progenies. Arka

Surya is a cross between Sunrise Solo x Pink Flesh Sweet

released. It is gynodioecious with medium sized fruits of 600

to 800 g and smooth skin. Arka Prabhath is an advanced

generation hybrid derived from the cross of (Arka Surya x

Tainung-1) Local Dwarf released from Indian Institute of

Horticultural Research. It is gynodioecious in nature, with

large sized fruits of 900 to 1200 g and smooth skin. Both the

fruits have attractive deep pink coloured, soft, crisp pulp free

from typical papaya odour with high TSS (13-140B). Fruit cavity

is small, on ripening fruits attain yellow skin colour.

RESEARCH METHODS

Investigation on evaluation of gynodioecious papaya

Members of the Research Forum

Associated Authors:1Department of Horticulture, Indian

Institute of Horticultural Research,

BENGALURU (KARNATAKA)

INDIA

HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE

hybrids- Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath was carried out during

2010-2011 at the Division of Fruit Crops, Indian Institute of

Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore. The experimental site

is located at an altitude of 890 m above mean sea level with

130N and 17037' E. Soil was red sandy loam with a pH 5.2 –

6.4.The intervarietal progenies of the varieties Arka Surya and

Arka Prabhath were evaluated for both morphological (plant

height, stem girth, number of nodes, number of leaves and

plant spread (East-West, North-South) at the time of first

flowering) and fruit characterstics(fruit weight, fruit length,

fruit width, pulp thickness, total soluble solids, fruit volume,

fruit cavity index, number of seeds and keeping quality).

Seedlings of both varieties were field planted and two months

after planting were evaluated for morphological characters.

General package of practices were followed for the cultivation.

The fifteen progenies (P1-P

15) formed the material and

designated as 15 treatments were used for evaluation for each

variety (Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath). Each treatment was

carried out with five replications following Randomized

Complete Block Design (RCBD).

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Evaluation of intervarietal progenies of many

combinations has been carried out by many workers in the

Evaluation of gynodioecious papaya varieties - Arka Surya

and Arka Prabhath

BHARATHI NIRUJOGI1 AND M.R. DINESH

Article history :

Received : 01.03.2012

Revised : 17.08.2012

Accepted : 18.09.2012

Research Paper

Author for correspondence :

M.R. DINESH

Department of Horticulture, Indian

Institute of Horticultural Research,

BENGALURU (KARNATAKA)

INDIA

Email : bharathinirujogi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT : Evaluation is one of the prerequisites for choosing the parents in a breeding programme

as it helps in the selection of parents and forms a basis for development of recombinants with the

desirable traits. With this objective selfed progenies from gynodioecious papaya varieties Arka Surya

and Arka Prabhath were evaluated for morphological and fruit traits. Although, they are stable

gynodioecious, still some variation for plant and fruit characters are evident in the progenies due to

different genetic constitution of female and hermaphrodite plants in the population. However quality of

the fruits did not differ much. Hence, a study was envisaged to see the sib mated progeny performance

of both the hybrids.

KEY WORDS : Gynodioecious, Hermaphrodites, Sibmating

HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE : Nirujogi, Bharathi and Dinesh, M.R. (2012). Evaluation of gynodioecious

papaya varieties - Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath, Asian J. Hort., 7(2) : 272-275.

THE ASIAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE

Volume 7 | Issue 2 | December, 2012 | 272-275

Hind Agricultural Research and Training InstituteAsian J. Hort., 7(2) Dec., 2012 : 273

past in papaya with a view to combine desirable characteristics

of many varieties in a single genotype and it helps in the

selection of parents, which contribute useful genes for the

progenies.

Morphological characters:

In the case of papaya, 90 per cent homozygosity can be

reached by sibmating. In gynodioecious varieties due to the

different genetic constitution there always remain some

morphological differences among the progenies the

differences observed here can be attributed to this.Significant

differences were found among the progenies observed for

morphological parameters like plant height, stem girth, number

of nodes, number of leaves and plant spread (East-West,

North-South) at the time of first flowering for Arka Surya and

Arka Prabhath (Table 1). In Arka Surya, within the population

the plant height at first flowering varied from 93.50 to 116.90

cm. In the case of Arka Prabhath it varied from 54.50 to 86.45

cm. Stem girth for Arka Surya was between 5.86 to 8.24 cm and

for Arka Prabhath it varied from 3.91 to 4.95cm. Number of

leaves varied from 18 to 31 and for Arka Prabhath number of

leaves varied from 20 to 33. For Arka Surya, number of nodes

varied from 27 to 32 and for Arka Prabhath number of nodes

varied from 23 to 36. Plant spread in east-west direction for

Arka Surya progeny varied between 140.55 to 212.55 cm and

for Arka Prabhath it varied from 92.20 to 126.60 cm. In north-

south direction for Arka Surya the plant spread in the progenies

varied from135.60 to 214.10 cm and for Arka Prabhath the

progeny varied from 87.34 to 119.66 cm. Several workers have

carried out varietal evaluation in papaya. This difference

among the progenies for various morphological characteristics

is because of the different sex types like females and

hermaphrodites. However, within a population the height gets

evened out after two years. Prior to this work, several workers

hither to have compared varieties (Narasing et al.,1958;

Nakasone et al., 1972, Selvaraj et al., 1975 and Ito et al., 1977).

Fruit characteristics:

Significant differences were observed with respect to

fruit parameters like fruit weight, fruit length, fruit width, pulp

thickness, total soluble solids, fruit volume, fruit cavity index

and number of seeds (Table 2). In a population, generally

variation among the progenies gets evened out when averages

are taken out. All though the, varieties Arka Surya and Arka

Prabhath are gynodioecious, the shape and size of the fruit

varies with the sex type i.e. females will be round in shape and

ovular fruits are found in hermaphrodites. However, quality

of fruits do not differ very much for pulp thickness and fruit

cavity index. However it is to be mentioned here that number

of seeds also varies in different sex types because of the

pollen availability and stigmatic fertility. The fruit cavity index

will be invariably bigger in female fruits than the

hermaphrodites. Ito et al. (1977), observed variation for yield

between the different sex types in the varieties Sunrise, Andy

and Waimanalo. However, with regard to the quality attributes

they obtained non significant differences. Fruit weight in the

progenies of Arka Surya varied between 616.92 to 892.40g

and for Arka Prabhath it varied between 828.82 to 2416.50 g. In

Arka Surya fruit length between the progenies varied between

11.12 to 14.84 cm and for Arka Prabhath fruit length between

Table 1 : Evaluation of intervarietal papaya progenies for morphological characteristics at first flowering

Arka Surya Arka Prabhath

Canopy spread

(cm)

Canopy spread

(cm) Progeny

No.

Plant

height

(cm)

Stem

girth

(cm)

No. of

leaves/

plant

No of

nodes/p

lant E-W N-S

Plant

height

(cm)

Stem

girth

(cm)

No. of

leaves/p

lant

No. of

nodes/pla

nt E-W N-S

P1 93.50 5.86 20.00 30.00 154.54 170.50 70.54 4.58 20.00 31.00 110.56 117.94

P2 112.40 5.89 18.00 27.00 170.55 165.90 67.65 4.00 22.00 29.00 109.45 103.80

P3 113.56 8.24 27.00 30.00 177.54 164.50 68.63 4.31 26.00 30.00 118.60 109.60

P4 100.45 6.36 19.00 29.00 173.85 169.45 74.90 4.23 24.00 32.00 126.18 114.75

P5 106.50 6.42 24.00 28.00 175.53 180.65 58.52 4.26 28.00 29.00 100.10 98.68

P6 116.90 7.56 31.00 32.00 200.00 200.00 68.89 4.10 33.00 28.00 92.20 87.34

P7 115.55 7.71 24.00 32.00 212.55 214.10 67.55 4.15 26.00 30.00 113.94 106.56

P8 102.10 7.20 21.00 31.00 186.65 174.55 58.55 4.72 30.00 29.00 120.15 109.78

P9 108.90 7.61 26.00 30.00 204.50 190.45 86.45 4.95 26.00 31.00 120.10 119.66

P10 110.75 7.41 25.00 31.00 192.50 200.10 54.50 4.86 29.00 32.00 103.15 104.90

P11 105.15 6.32 24.00 31.00 160.50 165.50 63.70 4.25 31.00 23.00 121.20 101.00

P12 114.00 6.90 24.00 29.00 170.55 185.40 65.10 3.91 21.00 29.00 113.50 107.50

P13 104.50 6.25 28.00 28.00 140.55 135.60 79.00 4.18 26.00 26.00 119.80 109.60

P14 107.80 6.31 27.00 30.00 167.58 172.55 82.15 4.27 29.00 36.00 126.60 115.76

P15 95.50 6.42 29.00 28.00 170.00 180.80 55.20 4.85 25.00 29.00 107.55 101.50

Mean 101.17 6.83 24.46 29.73 177.15 178.00 68.08 4.37 26.40 29.60 113.53 107.29

BHARATHI NIRUJOGI AND M.R. DINESH

272-275

Hind Agricultural Research and Training InstituteAsian J. Hort., 7(2) Dec., 2012 : 274

the progenies varied from 15.22 to 24.50 cm. For

Arka Surya fruit breadth between the progenies

varied between 8.76 to 12.44 cm and for Arka

Prabhath it varied from 11.38 to 16.76 cm. The

cavity index among the progenies of Arka Surya

varied between 16.22 to 24.25 per cent and for

Arka Prabhath it varied between12.09 to 27.01 per

cent. Data revealed that for Arka Surya pulp

thickness between the progenies varied from1.94

cm to 2.46 cm. In Arka Prabhath, pulp thickness

between the progenies varied from 2.38 to 3.36cm.

For Arka Surya, TSS among the progenies varied

between 8.64 to 13.940B and for Arka Prabhath,

TSS varied between 10.70 to 13.500B. In Arka Surya

number of seeds among the progenies varied from

374 to 775. For Arka Prabhath, number of seeds

among the progenies varied from 696 to 1176. For

both the varieties, Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath

the pulp colour was deep pink in color. For Arka

Surya more keeping quality was observed (3.56-

7.12days) compared to Arka Prabhath (5.92-10.02

days). Several workers prior to this have compared

fruit quality attributes among the varieties and

found significant differences (Nakasone et al.,

1972; Selvaraj et al., 1975; Sulikeri et al., 1977; Pal

et al., 1980; Allan, 1981 and Sundarrajan and

Krishnan, 1984).The progenies in both the

varieties Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath, which

are found to have higher fruit weight, higher TSS

or pulp thickness, were observed not to be the

same progenies (e.g. the progeny P9 of Arka

Prabhath showed higher pulp thickness but lower

TSS). In Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath

understandably the seed yield per fruit among

the progenies varied because of the sex types.

Conclusion:

In the case of papaya, 90 per cent

homozygosity can be reached by sibmating. In

gynodioecious varieties due to the different

genetic constitution there always remain some

morphological differences among the

progenies.The shape and size of the fruit varies

with the sex type i.e., females will be round in

shape and ovular fruits are found in

hermaphrodites. The progenies in both the

varieties Arka Surya and Arka Prabhath, which

were found to have higher fruit weight, higher

TSS or pulp thickness, were observed to be not in

the same progenies. Variations in morphological

traits were seen in some of the progenies. Quality

of fruits in the progenies did not differ much but

for pulp thickness and fruit cavity index. However,

EVALUATION OF GYNODIOECIOUS PAPAYA VARIETIES - ARKA SURYA & ARKA PRABHATH

272-275

Hind Agricultural Research and Training InstituteAsian J. Hort., 7(2) Dec., 2012 : 275

it is to be mentioned here that number of seeds also varies in

different sex types because of the pollen availability and

stigmatic fertility. Generally hermaphrodites were observed to

have higher seed set.

REFERENCES

Allan, P. (1981). Clonal “Honey Gold” Pawpaws, A horticultural

and commercial success. Citrus & Subtropical Fruit J., 575 : 19-53.

Anonymous (2010). Indian Horticulture Database, National

Horticulture Board, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, Gurgaon,

pp 96-103.

Ito, P.J., Atubra, O.K. and Norman, J.C. (1977). Performance of

Hawaiian cultivars of Pawpaw (Carica papaya L.) in Ghana. Acta

Hort., 53 : 321-324.

Nakasone, H.Y., Crozier, J.A. and Ikehara, D.K. (1972). Evaluation

of ‘Waimanalo’, a new papaya strain. Technical Bulletin, Hawaii

Agricultural Experiment Station. Hawaii Univ., 79: 12.

Narasing, R.V., Madhava Rao, V.N. and Venkataraman, T.M. (1958).

Co1, a new word in papayas, Indian J. Hort., 2 (3): 3-5.

Pal, D.K., Subramanyam, M.D., Divakar, N.G., Iyer, C.P.A. and

Selvaraj, Y. (1989). Studies on the physico-chemical composition of

fruits of 12 papaya varieties. J. Food Sci. and Tech. India, 17 (6):

254-256.

Sundarrajan, S. and Krishnan, B.M. (1984). Improved papaya

varieties, Proc. of National Sem. on Papaya and Papain Production,

TNAU, pp: 40-41.

Selvaraj, P., Raman, K.R. and Balakrishna, R. (1975). A study on

the performance of Solo Papaya. Prog. Hort., 7: 5-10.

Sulikeri, G.S., Sharanappa, K., Rao, M.M. and Bojappa, K.M.,

(1977). Solo papaya a promising new find to Karnataka. Curr. Res.,

6 (9): 149-150.

***********

BHARATHI NIRUJOGI AND M.R. DINESH

272-275