Researchers generally saw positive changes in fruit traits, especially the redder fruit. The fruits, first harvested and evaluated in 1966, were named 'Star Ruby.' Those seeds were planted, then a year later, buds were removed from seedlings and propagated (via grafting) on sour orange rootstock. In 1959, Hudson grapefruit seeds were irradiated with x-rays and thermal neutrons at Brookhaven National Laboratories. Two popular varieties, Star Ruby and Rio Red, are the successful results of induced mutations caused by irradiation, although the process was different for each. The different varieties have flesh that ranges from white to pink to red. Results of Irradiating Grapefruit Seed and BudstockĪt most grocery stores today, you can find a wide variety of grapefruits when they're in season. How could scientists capitalize on that tendency to mutate and use mutations to develop a hardy grapefruit tree that bears lots of fruit with consistent deep-red color, appealing taste, and fewer seeds? Farmers and scientists already knew that grapefruit tissue mutates regularly budsports show that grapefruit can make pink pigments. These economic concerns – the desirability of red fruit and the need for hardy trees – prompted agricultural scientists to seek varieties with all these positive traits in one plant. Growers in both places need trees that can survive despite a little bit of cold now and again. If a freeze happens there, it can wipe out vast swaths of trees. In Texas, however, grapefruit production is concentrated in the Rio Grande valley. In Florida, freezes happen occasionally, but the grapefruit groves are scattered widely throughout the state, so a freeze usually impacts only some of the groves. Another desired trait is hardiness, or resistance to cold because sudden cold temperatures damage citrus trees. Farmers need strong, healthy plants that can resist the plant diseases and pests that damage crops. To grow more of the pink varieties, farmers became interested in growing grapefruits in places beyond Florida, grapefruit's first home in the United States.įruit color and seedlessness aren't the only traits that appeal to farmers. Consumers also preferred grapefruits with few or no seeds. Grafting also brings us other fruits such as red D'Anjou pears, as well as Red and Golden Delicious apples.Īs grapefruits grew in popularity through the mid-1900s, consumers developed a taste for the pinker, sweeter varieties. Using grafting, plant breeders can create a whole plant that has a desirable mutation that appeared in a budsport. The buds, limbs, and fruits that grow are from the tissue of the budsport. The two pieces are wrapped tightly together, and eventually, they fuse.The shaved piece is inserted inside the bark of the rootstock.Growers then slice some of the bark off the piece of budsport.A piece of stem with some bark and a bud is cut off the budsport.Growers slice open part of the bark of the rootstock and gently peel away the bark a little, leaving it on the stem, but making space between the bark and the next inner layer.The top of the rootstock is cut off, and any rootstock buds are removed if they grow later.Grafting is usually done on young rootstock before it produces fruit. A budsport can be used to make a whole tree by grafting the desired branch onto a host tree, called the rootstock.
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