Analysis of hybrid vigor for cucumber with Functional-Structural model Greenlab

Abstract

To analyze the hybrid vigor between parent and hybrid plants, three cucumber cultivars were used (Parents: A, B; F1 hybrid: C). Detailed observations were performed using the continuous observations and destructive sampling during the growth of plants. Experimental results indicate that cyclic changes occur for the dry weight of organs (internode, leaf and petiole) of different positions during the stem. The yield, organ sizes and fruit number of the three cultivars were different. To analyze these differences, a Functional-structural model ’Greenlab’ was applied to compute the parameters of source sink for organs. The results demonstrate that plant architecture plays an important role on the heterosis breeding. This study is a first step to build a tool to provide the guidance of heterosis breeding for breeders on cucumber.