Selection of Avocado Plants Based on Fruit Characters, Fat Content, and Continual Harvest along The Year in West Java-Indonesia

Abstract

Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) belongs to Lauraceae family, is originated from lowland and highland tropical America region. Avocado plant was introduced to Indonesia in 1750 by Spanish. Fruit of avocado contains high unsaturated ( healthy) fat, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and energy. Fruit of avocado can be eaten freshly, used as an additional ingredient cooking and material for cosmetics. Avocado fruits are available along the year in market cities of Indonesia but their fruits fluctuate in quantity and uncertain quality. It because the plants commonly come from seeds and grown in home-yards or small areas by small farmers. The purposes of this research were to evaluate and select some cultivars for parent plants that produce good fruit characters, high content of fat, and continual yield along the year. The research was started on January 2011 until 2013 for obtaining data, collecting avocado fruits and scions in West Java province, which is the biggest avocado fruit production in Indonesia. From 180 accessions of avocado fruits, there were 31 potential accessions for selecting good cultivars and 6 accessions of them (10, 5, 39, 48, 61, 123) were selected.  The selected fruit character had scores 72 – 80 of maximum 100, fat content 9.78% – 20.57%, and harvest periods from January to December. These accessions as grafted plants have grown and propagated in our research station of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in Cibinong for further study and for releasing to the farmers.