Open Pollinated Broccoli Genotypes: Agronomic Parameters and Sensory Attributes

Summary

Breeding of open pollinated (OP) varieties for organic farming gains further importance as varieties created by breeding techniques like CMS-hybridisation and cell fusion are no longer accepted by several organic farming associations. For broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica), the availability of OP varieties is very limited and the ones available are often not suitable for commercial crop production. In a participatory breeding project of the non-governmental, non-profit German association Kultursaat e.V. and the University of Hohenheim new genotypes were tested for agronomic parameters in field trials and sensory traits of cooked and raw broccoli were evaluated by two untrained consumer panels in 2012 and 2013. Agronomic traits of hybrids and OP genotypes varied widely, e.g. one OP genotype showed similar head weights (380 g) and head diameters (18 cm) as the standard hybrid (340 g and 17 cm), while other OP genotypes were often much lower in weight (240 g) and head diameter (13 cm). In addition, some of the OP genotypes were very heterogeneous in colour ranging from green to violet. In the sensory assessment of the varieties, untrained consumers were able to differentiate between the different genotypes. The ranking for the genotypes differed when eaten cooked or raw. Positively associated taste attributes for broccoli were “nutty”, “cabbage-like”, “sweet” and “spicy” for cooked samples, in raw samples “spicy” was evaluated negatively. Other negatively associated attributes were “bitter” and “off-flavour” for both raw and cooked material. On an overall level the OP genotype CHE-MIC showed the highest acceptance amongst consumers for cooked broccoli in 2012 and 2013. Out of the OP genotypes CHE-MIC has the potential to be commercially successful in particular after further selection for homogeneity for example in colour and head diameter has taken place.