Genetic Analyses Indicate Superiority of Performance of Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) Hybrids.

The use of hybrids as a new type of cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.)cultivars could improve yield in this crop, but little or no information is available on hybrid performance. We studied several vegetative characters, yield, fruit weight and fruit shape, soluble solids content (SSC), tiltratable acidity (TA)and ascorbic acid content (AAC) in three hybrids of cape gooseberry and their parents grown outdoors and in a glasshouse. Interaction dominance X environment for yield was very important; a higher dominance effect was detected in the glasshouse, than that observed outdoors. Quality characters were highly affected by the environment and showed variable results for the different families. For fruit comparison traits, the additive and additive X environment interactions were most important. Broad-sense heritability for all characters was high to medium (0.48-0.91), indicating that a high response to selection would be expectecd. Hybrids can improve cape gooseberry yield without impairing fruit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]