eChapters

INTRODUCTION

Various procedures which are used for genetic improvement of crop plants are known as breeding methods. The breeding approaches that are more commonly used for genetic improvement of crop plants are called conventional breeding methods. Following conventional breeding methods were followed in improvement of crops.

(A)Plant introduction

(B)Pureline selection

(C)Mass selection

(D)Progeny selection

(E)Synthetic and composite breeding

(F)Pedigree method

(G)Bulk method

(H)Backcross method

(I)Heterosis breeding

(J)Clonal selection

Abstract: Cosmos, popular as garden annual in many parts of the world, has its origin in Mexico. Cosmos is cross pollinating and progeny can segregate widely for traits due to heterozygosity. Self and cross incompatibility, self and intersterility, limited fertility, reproductive barriers and seed sterility often pose significant challenges to breeders. The breeding objectives include development of suitable indoor plants, less susceptible to powdery mildew and more tolerant to abiotic stress. The biotechnological skills can be attempted in breeding.

Keywords: Breeding, self incompatibility, sterility, hybrid seed production.

Cosmos is a flowering plant belongs to family Asteraceae. Cosmos bipinnatus is ornamentally important species grown for garden display. The word cosmos is derived from the Greek word “kosmos”, which means a balanced universe or order, harmony and often referred to as Mexican Aster. The species name is from the Latin “bipinnatus” meaning “twice-pinnate” The botanical epithet is from the Latin “pinnatus” meaning “with leaflets arranged in opposite pairs”. Cosmos flowers are produced in a capitulum. Modern varieties come with single or double flowers, picotee edges, and even furled petals in the variety Seashells. Ornamental uses of cosmos include cut flowers and as border annual in the gardens. It is a very popular flower for summer bedding. Cosmos has a pleasant aroma and attracts butterflies to the garden. Essential oil extracted from leaves of cosmos. The major constituent of C. bipinnatus contained 15-17% beta-elemene, 15-17% beta-caryophyllene, 10-21% germacrene D and 12-15% bicyclogermacrene (Menut et al., 2000).

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Cosmos is native to scrub and meadowland in Mexico where most of the species occur, Florida and the southern United States, Arizona, Central America, and to South America in the north to Paraguay in the south.

It can also be found in natural areas in much of North America, where it is a garden escape (introduced species) and in some habitats becoming a weed. Cosmos sulphureus originates from Central America (Mexico) and northern South America, where it is still found in the wild. It has been introduced as an ornamental in many countries all over the world, in tropical Africa e.g. in Senegal, Cameroon, Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Réunion and Mauritius. Sometimes it has escaped from cultivation and behaves like a weed, e.g. in Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, the United States and Canada. Cosmos caudatus is indigenous to tropical America. It was introduced by Spaniards into the Philippines, possibly because it was used by them as a vegetable at sea. Now it is pantropical, including Southeast Asia, where it is cultivated but also occurs in a naturalized state.

Cosmos is a flowering plant belongs to family Asteraceae. Cosmos bipinnatus is ornamentally important species grown for garden display. The word cosmos is derived from the Greek word “kosmos”, which means a balanced universe or order, harmony and often referred to as Mexican Aster. The species name is from the Latin “bipinnatus” meaning “twice-pinnate” The botanical epithet is from the Latin “pinnatus” meaning “with leaflets arranged in opposite pairs”. Cosmos flowers are produced in a capitulum. Modern varieties come with single or double flowers, picotee edges, and even furled petals in the variety Seashells. Ornamental uses of cosmos include cut flowers and as border annual in the gardens. It is a very popular flower for summer bedding. Cosmos has a pleasant aroma and attracts butterflies to the garden. Essential oil extracted from leaves of cosmos. The major constituent of C. bipinnatus contained 15-17% beta-elemene, 15-17% beta-caryophyllene, 10-21% germacrene D and 12-15% bicyclogermacrene (Menut et al., 2000).

12.1 Introduction

It is important to note that growing crops in a greenhouse requires a significant f inancial and administrative commitment. In order to ensure profitability, firms need to consider both cash flow and profitability. An enterprise budget can help address profitability potential by itemizing costs incurred across a typical production cycle. On the other hand, a cash flow budget is used to analyze the cash inflows and outflows of the enterprise over a fixed period of time.

Lagerstroemia indica belongs to family Lythraceae commoly known as Crape myrtle. It it grown well in India for various landscape purposes. It is called Sawani or Shravani (Hindi), Dhayti (Marathi), Chinagoranta (Telugu), Pavalakkurinji (Tamil). Lagerstroemia a long period of striking rainy season flower colour, attractive fall foliage and good drought-tolerance all combine to make a favourite shrub or small tree for either formal or informal landscapes. It is a deciduous, multi stemmed; rounded crown; dense branching and is highly recommended for planting in urban and suburban areas.

The scientific name, Lagerstroemia, was coined in 1759 by Carl Linnaeus, who described and named the plant in honour of “Magnus von Lagerstroem”, an avid naturalist and director of the Swedish East Indies Company. Crape myrtle derives its common name from its crepe-like, crinkled petals, and the resemblance of its leaves to the true myrtle, Myrtus communis. “Crape myrtle” is a peculiarly-American term. Elsewhere in the world, “Lagerstroemia” is often used as the common name for crape myrtle (Knox, 2003).

Crape myrtle is the smaller version of Lagerstroemia speciosa, commonly known as Pride of India or Queen crape myrtle. The deciduous crape myrtle is among the longest blooming trees in existence with flowering periods lasting from 60-120 days. Crapes come in heights as short as 46 cm and as tall as 12 m. Leaves are alternate and smooth, but leaf size depends on variety. Flowers are borne in summer in big showy clusters and come in white and many shades of pink, purple, lavender and red. The bark is a prominent feature being smooth, pinkinsh-gray and mottled, shedding each year. Leaves are small and dark green changing to yellow and orange in autumn. When the leaves fall in winter, crape myrtle becomes a living sculpture. The trunk and branches of tree-form plants have an attractively gnarled, sinuous character with smooth bark. Seeds are narcotic. In Manipur, flowers and leaves are used as purgatives. Bark is stimulant and febrifuge (fever removing). Roots are astringent and used as gargle.

Lagerstroemia indica belongs to family Lythraceae commoly known as Crape myrtle. It it grown well in India for various landscape purposes. It is called Sawani or Shravani (Hindi), Dhayti (Marathi), Chinagoranta (Telugu), Pavalakkurinji (Tamil). Lagerstroemia a long period of striking rainy season flower colour, attractive fall foliage and good drought-tolerance all combine to make a favourite shrub or small tree for either formal or informal landscapes. It is a deciduous, multi stemmed; rounded crown; dense branching and is highly recommended for planting in urban and suburban areas.

For crop improvement and more specifically to develop new varieties a number of plant breeding methods are available. CSIR-NBRI from very beginning selected all available techniques and standardized their practical application for all ornamental crops. All crop specific basic information was collected/generated for successful application of techniques for development of new varieties by creating genetic variability. Ornamental plant species fall into two main categories. In the first group the plants that are capable of sexual reproduction, but are commercially propagated vegetatively. The second group of plant species are the apomicts. In obligate apomicts hybridization fails to generate any variability. For development of new variety creation of genetic variability is pre-requisite. Breeder should have all up-to-date knowledge about all the available techniques and their merits and demerits for improvement and development of new varieties.

The types of crops and the practices used to grow them and the sequence in which they are grown altogether refers to cropping system. It comprises of all components required for the crop production and their relationships with the environment. Traditionally the cropping systems aim at maximizing the per unit area productivity, which can be done by growing improved high yielding varieties, by adequate and scientific crop management practices and by increasing cropping intensities with the help of different cropping patterns.

In today’s world cropping system should produce more, at the same time the practices should be ecologically and environmentally sustainable. There should be efficient utilization of land and water. It should be designed to conserve soil, soil moisture and improve soil resilience.

A cropping system refers to the type and sequence of crops grown and practices used for growing them. It is based on the available technologies of crop production. Cropping systems have been traditionally structured to maximize crop yields. Now, there is a strong need to design cropping systems, which take into consideration the emerging social, economic and ecological or environmental concerns for each ecosystem. The goal of a cropping system must be to conserve natural resources i.e. soil, water and sustain crop production. Conserving soil and water and maintaining longterm soil productivity depend largely on the management of cropping systems, which influence the magnitude of soil erosion and soil organic matter dynamics. Crop diversification is an important option in sustainable agricultural systems. Management of cropping systems implies management of tillage, crop residue, nutrients, pests, and practices for soil conservation. Difference between dry land and rainfed farming is as follows.

15.1 INTRODUCTION

Cropping system is defined as a cropping pattern followed on a farm and its interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises and production technology. In other words, cropping system refers to a combination of crops in time and space. When annual crops are considered, a cropping system usually means the combination of crops within a given year (Willey et al., 1989). This cropping system might provide insurance against crop failure by reducing disease (Fininsa and Yuen, 2002) and insect incidence (Gahukar, 1989) or against unstable market prices by planting two or more crops under intercropping and thus, reducing the risk of unexpected changeable prices. Intercropping in scientific way should be viewed from a theme of competition to one of collaboration with mutually beneficial relation with proper planning to get more return from limited natural resources. Legumes have been the common intercrops in any intercropping system owing to their short duration, N-fixing ability etc. Even though non-leguminous vegetables require longer duration than legumes and are non-N-fixers, they can also be suitable as intercrops because of their high profitability and higher yields.

Abstract: Crossandra, traditional flower crop of India, produce beautiful flowers in remarkable range of colours of almost all the year. Flowers are ideal for garland making and hair adornments. Only few species are cultivated across the world. Improvement is focused on drought tolerant ornamental types for landscape/ container use, better keeping quality, heavy yield and vivid range of flower colours, long spikes, earliness and big flower size. Breeders have created mutant cultivars and F₁ hybrids having valuable traits. Lack of fragrance and meager seed set require biotechnological interventions.

Crossandra belongs to family Acanthaceae. It is also known as Kanakambaram in Tamil or Kanakambara in Kannada and Fire cracker in English because of cracking sound during opening of seed pod. Crossandra is derived from Greek word “krossoi” meaning fringe and “aner” meaning male i.e. fringed anthers. Crossandra is an evergreen shrub and one of the important loose flower used for adornment. The flowers are commonly grown for flower adornment in the form of garlands, venis and gajras. Though it is not fragrant, flowers are very popular because of its attractive bright colour, light weight and good keeping quality. These are used for making garland, either alone or in combination with jasmine flowers. Using crossandra flowers in combination with jasmine is becoming increasingly popular in India, particularly in southern parts, because the jasmine flowers provide colour contrast and the desired fragrance. Crossandra varieties show a remarkable range of colours, varying from orange, pink, red, yellow and double coloured blue-type with white throat.

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Crossandra is native to Indo-malaya region. They are all native to sub-tropoical regions including India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Madagascar.

Crossandra Salisb is a genus of about 50 species which are shrubs or herbs from Tropical Africa, Madagascar and Arabia, where it is grown as a perennial shrub. Crossandra undulaefolia Salisb. (Syn C. infundibuliformis Nees) is a native of East Indies. However, it is sometimes considered to be native of south India and Ceylon. C. guinensis is native of east Africa while C. nilotica has its origin in east Africa and Mozambigue. C. flava is a native of tropical west Africa.

The crossandra plants are distributed in tropical as well as subtropical regions of the world such as south Asia, South America, South Africa and Madagascar. In India, it is commercially cultivated in southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (Singh, 2006).

Crossandra is an important tropical flowering crop valued for its attractive flowers and continuous production of loose blooms. It has particular importance in southern India, where flowers are widely used for garlands, hair decoration and religious purposes. This chapter covers the crop’s botanical characteristics, origin, distribution, genetics and commercially important varieties. It explains propagation, nursery management, climate and soil requirements, land preparation, planting, irrigation and nutrient management. Important cultural practices and plant growth management are discussed for obtaining regular flowering and good-quality blooms. The chapter also addresses insect pests, diseases, harvesting and postharvest management, including the correct method of flower collection. It provides a comprehensive production package for growers and students.

INTRODUCTION

Crossandra is an important traditional flower crop of south India. It is small evergreen shrub that is quite hardy and has the ability to produce beautiful flowers with a remarkable range of colours almost all the year. This has made it extremely popular in southern states of India where the flowers are widely used in temple offering and for making gajras and venis to use as hair adornments.

Owing to their attractive colours, light weight and good keeping quality, crossandra flowers are ideal for garland making. Even though the flowers lack fragrance, they are widely used in garlands either alone or along with jasmine to produce charming colour contrasts. Steady market demand and assured and regular income have made crossandra a profitable venture for south Indian farmers.

Introduction

Crossandra is an important traditional flower crop of South India. The word crossandra is derived from Greek words ‘krossoi’ meaning fringe and ‘aner’ meaning male, thus word crossandra means fringed stamens. It is grown for loose flower production and commonly used in temple offering and for making Gajras and Venis to use as hair adornments. Owing to their attractive colours, light weight and good keeping quality, crossandra flowers are ideal for garland making. Steady market demand and assured and regular income have made crossandra a profitable venture for South Indian farmers.

Genetics

The genus Crossandra belongs to family Acanthaceae. The diploid chromosome number of crossandra is 2n=40. This genus consists of around 50 species of tropical plants with only a few cultivated species such as Crossandra undulaefolia, C. mucronata, C. guineensis and C. sebacaulis. Crossandra undulaefolia is an important species which is grown for commercial value across the world.

This cosmopolitan family of about 375 genera and over 4,060 species, occur chiefly in north temperate regions, especially in the Mediterranean region. About 50 genera and over 140 species have so far been reported from India. Some of the larger genera, along with their reported number of species from the world in parenthesis, include Draba (300), Cardamine (160), Lepidium (150), Alyssum (150), Arabis (120), Erysimum (100), Sisymbrium (90), Heliophila (75), Rorippa (70), Iberis (30) and Raphanus (8). Majority of Crucifers produce an abundance of vitamin C. Characteristic pungent odour of its members is because of sulphur compounds.
Selected Indian Genera and Species
• Vegetables: Several common vegetables of daily use belong to this family. Some of them are radish (Raphanus sativus), cauliflower (B. oleracea var. botrytis), Brussel’s sprout (B. oleracea var. gemmifera), sengri (B. sativus var. caudatus), etc.
• Oils: Fatty oil, used for cooking, pickles, bruning, massaging, etc. is obtained from the seeds of several species of this family. Mustard oil is obtained from several species of Brassica such as B. campestris var. sarson and B. campestris var. toria (Indian rape). Oil is also obtained from the seeds of B. juncea var. cuneifolia (Rai), B. alba (white mustard). The oil cake left after the extraction of oil, is a good cattle feed.

Vegetable crops belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae are known as cucurbits. These include 950 species in over 90 genera, mainly distributed in the tropics and subtropics (Schaefer and Renner, 2011). Enormous diversity of cucurbit genetic resources has evolved in past centuries to cater the nutritional requirements of people in different geographical and climatic regions. A large number of cucurbitaceous vegetables coming from different centres of origin are cultivated worldwide (Table 1). However, these crops are challenged by several biotic and abiotic stresses. Cultivated varieties are constrained by market demands, the necessity for climatic adaptations, domestication bottlenecks, and in most cases, limited capacity for interspecific hybridization, creating narrow genetic bases for crop improvement. Genetic resources are the building block for any crop improvement programme and includes landraces, traditional varieties, wild, weedy and other related species constituting primary, secondary and tertiary gene pools. They are valuable sources of important genetic traits needed for developing resilient and climate smart crop varieties and therefore, important for food security. The success and pace of the development depends on the efficient use of plant genetic resources. Wild relatives are incredible genetic resources carrying several desirable attributes like nutritional quality, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses etc. Most of the crop wild relatives of cultivated crops across the world are not receiving adequate attention for their effective utilization in breeding programs. It is therefore, of utmost priority to protect them in the wild, through in-situ conservation, where they can continue to evolve and develop these useful adaptations. ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR) is the nodal agency for the management of national wealth of vegetable genetic resources speciallyworking for collections, characterization, identification and documentation of new germplasm. Besides, it also bears the responsibility for conservation of the germplasm for future through sustainable use. The Vegetable germplasm is being conserved both under in-situ and ex-situ genebanks. This chapter highlights the status of Cucurbit genetic resources and procedures to access the germplasm by various stakeholders for research use.
 

The Cucurbitaceae family consists of nearly 100 genera and over 750 species. Although most of them have Old World origin (Whitaker and Davis, 1962), many species originated in the New World and at least seven genera have origins in both hemispheres (Esquinas-Alcazar and Gulick, 1983). There is considerable genetic diversity within the family and the range of adaptation for cucurbit species includes tropical and subtropical regions, arid deserts and temperate locations. A few species are adaptable to production at elevations as high as 2000 m. The genetic diversity in cucurbits extends to both vegetative and reproductive characteristics. There is considerable range in the monoploid (x) chromosome number (Jeffrey, 1990) including 7 (Cucumis sativus), 11 (Citrullus spp., Momordica spp., Lagenaria spp., Sechium spp., and Trichosanthes spp.), 12 (Benincasa hispida, Coccinia spp., Cucumis spp. other than C. sativus, and Praecitrullus fistulosus), 13 (Luffa spp.), and 20 (Cucurbita spp.).
 
Archaeological evidence indicated that cucurbits were present in ancient and prehistoric cultures. Lagenaria was associated with man as early as 12,000 BC in Peru (Esquinas-Alcazar and Gulick, 1983). Archaeological expeditions in the Oaxaca region of Mexico have reported that Cucurbita pepo was associated with man as early as 8500 BC and cultivated by 4050 BC (Esquinas-Alcazar and Gulick, 1983). Written Chinese records describing the use of cultivated cucurbits have been found as early as 685 BC (Herklots, 1972).

Annual flowers are a cluster of herbaceous plants which grow from seeds, produce flowers, set seeds and complete their life-cycle within one year or one season. They offer a gorgeous display of colours within the garden. Whether it is a small homemade garden or a giant public garden, it is incomplete without beds of annual flowers. They enhance the ornamental value of a garden within a small span of time. At their blooming time, one feels elated when rainbows of colours appearin the garden.

Classification of Annuals

Flowering annuals are grown in beds and pots. They’re used for several purposes in the garden. In beds, they are grown individually with or without perennial plants in borders. They are developed in hanging baskets, window boxes or rock gardens, for training on walls and trellises and for planting in the form of edges, borders or ground covers. Dried flowers of some annuals are similarly used for interior decoration. Some annuals provide sweet fragrance.

1. Based on season: the annual flowers are divided into 3 groups—winter, summer and rainy season.