Emasculation of Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.) using hot water

Abstract

Hot water treatment was applied to Tartary buckwheat (var. ‘Hokkai T8’) for emasculation. Apical clusters of flower buds were soaked in a constant temperature water bath (42–44°C) in the afternoon and then the flowers which opened in the next morning were used for the investigation of self-fertilization and the artificial pollination. Hand pollination was carried out by rubbing the anthers taken from the male parent (var. ‘Hokkai T10’) to the stigma of the flowers treated by hot water. The seed set by self-fertilization was almost 0% when treated at 42°C for 8 min or more, at 43°C for 5 min or more and at 44°C for 3 min or more. With artificial pollination, the best performance was obtained when treated at 44°C for 3 min, in which the seed set was 55.1% and the matured seed was obtained 37.7% of the hand-pollinated flowers. Nine out of 26 progeny seedlings emerged and the cotyledonal color of them were all reddish green, probably indicating the hybrid of ‘Hokkai T8’ and ‘Hokkai T10’. The hybridization was reconfirmed by the segregation in F₂. The hot water treatment at 44°C for 3 min was available to other seven varieties. From 24.5% to 100% of the hand-pollinated flowers set mature seeds though only one self-fertilized seed remained without artificial pollinations. This hot water treatment must be practically useful in hybridization breeding of Tartary buckwheat.