FRUIT CHARACTERIZATION AND SEED POLYEMBRYONY OF 'FLYING DRAGON' AND OF CITRUS ROOTSTOCKS HYBRIDS

The diversification of the rootstocks is a reality at the moment of the Brazilian citriculture, due to many problems that have been recurring. In this context some alternatives are already a reality as the use of some hybrids produced through conventional breeding and varieties already used in citrus. This work was carried out aiming to characterize the fruit and evaluate the germination and the polyembryony of the seed. For the characterization, 12 samples of each rootstock were randomly collected. In the evaluation of the germination percentage, germination speed index and polyembryony, it was used a factorial scheme 5 (the rootstocks: hybrid UFLAD-2, UFLAD-3 and UFLAD-4, citrumeleiro 'Swingle' and Poncirus trifoliata var. monstrosa 'Flying Dragon') x 2 (with and without removing the seedcoat), with four replications. According to the results it is concluded that the fruit size did not influence in the seed yield. The removal of the seedcoat accelerated the time of seed germination in all the rootstocks and provided a higher germination percentage. The polyembryony did not affect the process of seed germination. The rootstocks UFLAD-2, UFLAD-3, UFLAD-4 and citrumeleiro 'Swingle' have potential to be used in the production of rootstocks.