One in a Million; Fruit Breeding is a Game of Numbers

Proprietary Product Development

One in a Million...Fruit breeding is a game of numbers

Many people have asked how a ‘one-in-a-million’ fruit variety like Suplumeleven or Sugrathirteen comes about. The quick answer might be to briefly describe the fruit breeding process:

Pollen is collected from the flowers of varieties to be used as pollen parents. That pollen is applied by hand to the flowers of other varieties chosen to be female parents.
Fruit from the female parents are then collected and the seeds are germinated.
The resulting hybrid seedlings are grown for two years until they bear fruit.
When they do, we select and keep only those seedlings that have the best fruit quality and highest yield.
After years of commercial evaluation, the best of the best may become a patented commercial fruit variety.

When you break down the steps involved, it becomes clear that ‘one-in-a-million’ is more than just a phrase:

Pollen collection: To get one vial of grape or stone fruit pollen we collect and process tens of thousands of flowers. That number is multiplied by the dozens of pollen parents used each year. Flowers are dried and the pollen is screened-off of the anthers (male part of the flower). The pollen is kept frozen until needed for cross-pollinations.

2a. Pollen of one grape variety being applied to another. The resulting fruit will be harvested and the seed traces will be cultured to develop hybrid seedlings.

Cross-pollinations: Each spring over a million grape and stone fruit flowers are hand pollinated. Each flower must first be emasulated (removal of the male part of the flower, see below-left) prior to pollination. The pollen that was collected from another variety, is then applied with a brush or a pencil eraser to the stigma (female part of the flower, see below-right)

2b. Peach flower buds are first emasculated (male part of flower is removed)

2c. Pollen from another variety is then applied to the pistle (female part of the flower)

2d. Plum flowers are usually not emasculated first. The trees are 'caged' with shade cloth material.

Embryo Rescue: Early-ripening stone fruit varieties, and all seedless grape varieties have small immature embryos that must be cultured individually in test tubes to grow a hybrid seedling. Many people are surprised that ‘seedless’ grapes have an embryo at all, but each one is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence and must be excised with the aid of a microscope. Of the million or so flowers pollinated each year, we harvest and process tens of thousands of embryos in test tubes. These hybrid ‘test tube babies’ go on to be planted in our greenhouses to grow during the fall and winter months.

Seedless table grape embryo beginning to grow.

Seedlings: In the spring, the hybrid seedlings are planted out into the field where they will grow for the next four seasons

Selections: Seedling blocks are evaluated once or twice a week throughout the season, with our breeders looking for individual seedlings to select with qualities that could make them a commercial variety, or at least a good parent in future crosses. Only a small fraction of the seedlings will eventually become named 'Selections' (breeding program varieties under commercial evaluation). The rest are discarded.

Endless rows of hybrid seedlings

Three examples of Sun World success stories, The BLACK DIAMOND ® plum (Suplumeleven), HONEYCOT ® apricot (Suapriseven), and the MIDNIGHT BEAUTY ® seedless table grape (Sugrathirteen).

Varieties: Breeder selections undergo careful evaluation, alongside standard commercial varieties, for several years to determine their commercial potential. Most will be utilized as parents in the breeding programs, but only one or two will be good enough to be patented…truly

one-in-a-million!

go to: Sun World Successes

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For Licensing Questions Contact:

Senior V.P., Licensing & Corporate Development: David Marguleas

Sun World International, LLC
Licensing Department
52-200 Industrial Way
Coachella, California USA 92236
tel: 1.760.398.9300
fax:1.760.398.9413

Notice: Propagating materials for Sun World's proprietary varieties are only available under license to qualified nursery and producer organizations. These privately owned and protected materials are not available for sale. Variety performance will vary depending on region and cultural practices.