Production of twelve new allotetraploid somatic hybrid citrus breeding parents with emphasis on late maturity and cold-hardiness

The rapid development of adapted, high-quality, easy-to-peel, seedless mandarin/mandarin hybrid cultivars is paramount for the future success of the Florida tangerine industry. The primary approach of the CREC cultivar improvement team to achieve this objective is to develop superior triploid cultivars, which should be seedless regardless of cross pollination. At present, the most efficient method for producing large populations of genetically diverse triploids for selection is via interploid crosses of monoembryonic diploid females with tetraploid pollen parents. A broad germplasm base will facilitate the identification of superior interploid parental combinations. We have been using somatic hybridization to expand our base of superior tetraploid breeding parents, and in this report we introduce 12 new hybrids produced from parents selected for fruit quality, cold-hardiness, and late maturity as follows: 'Murcott' tangor + 'Sunburst' tangerine; `Murcott' + ['Clementine' x `Satsuma' hybrid]; 'Murcott' + `Washington' navel orange; 'Murcott' + 'Osceola' mandarin hybrid; `Murcott' + 'Ortanique' tangor; `Itaborai' sweet orange + G96 trifoliate hybrid; `Nova' mandarin hybrid + 'Osceola'; 'Nova' + 'Ortanique'; 'Meiwa' kumquat + 'Changsha' mandarin; `Meiwa' + `Dancy' mandarin; 'Succari' sweet orange + LB8-9 tangelo; and `Succari' + `Changsha'. Coldy-hardy late-maturing seedless triploid cultivars should provide excellent future opportunities for fresh-citrus growers in Florida and worldwide.