Qualitätsprobleme bei der Resistenzzüchtung von Kopf- und Blumenkohl

In judging the value of the varieties and the quality of the edible part one should not forget that the resistance must also be present in other parts of the plant in order to reach the edible portion at all. This is so with diseases of the vascular system in roots, stems and leaves e.g.Fusarium, Plasmodiophora or cabbage fly as the agent of damage. In: Disease resistance in the vegetable crops, III Walker (1964) surveys also the situation in cabbage. Since then our knowledge of the club-root causing fungusPlasmodiophora has risen from 6–7 to at least 16 physiological races.A satisfactory source for club-root resistance in cabbage we only found in plants with pink anthocyanin pigmentation. The inheritance for colour is under complementary genetic control. Sometimes, however, the synthesis of colour is blocked by inhibitors in spite of the presence of a dominant colour gene. We have made use of this breeding pink-free heads.In spite of work on the antocyanin problem in cabbage over the last 20 years, I have been unable to bread white-headed plants which have as good disease resistance as plants with pink colouration in their interiors. In some other plant varieties one can find a similar relationship between disease resistance and anthocyanin colour in particular in the seed. I therefore feel justified to draw attention to the anthocyanin problem. It is also known that the presence of isothiocyanates and similar S-compounds can affect the disease resistance level in the plant. Sulphur containing compounds which co-determined the flavour and odour of the cabbage should be investigated for their influence upon disease resistance before one attempt to change drastically or even reduce them. We also discuss uneveness of the waxy layer in relation to quality and to disease resistance.Attempts were made to crosscauliflower with club-root resistantcabbage in order to obtain better disease resistance in cauliflowerlike plants. Slides are shown which demonstrate the quality problems 12–15 years after crossing, and the difficulties of breeding for cauliflower headlets were often obtained along the stump, but terminal head positions were rare. Quality-wise this cauliflower had more leaves inside the curd than usual. The breeding material segregates also for colour. Better cold — and frost — resistance was observed. If one does not follow up such observations one can lose a lot of disease resistance potential from the breeding material.

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Paper presented at the Congress of the International Association for Quality Research on food Plants (CIQ) held in common with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Qualitätsforschung (Pflanzliche Nahrungsmittel) (DGQ) in Wädenswil, Switzerland, Oktober 1975.