ScientiaHorticnlturae 61 (1995) 177-184 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWV SCIENTIA HORTICULTUM Relation between berry weight, number of seeds per berry and zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDC 1 00-seed weight in potato inflorescences C.J.M. Almekinders*, J.H. Neuteboom, P.C. Struik Department ofAgronomy, Wageningen Agricultural University, Haanveg 333,6709 RZ Wageningen, Netherlati Accepted20 September 1994 In three potato cultivars, Solanum tuberosum L. ‘Atzimba’, ‘R-l 28.6’ and ‘Serrana’, the effect of the position of the flower in the inflorescence on berry weight, number of seeds per berry and 1 OO-seed weight was analysed. Mean berry weight, number of seeds per berry and lOO-seed weight decreased from proximal to distal flower position, except the lOO- seed weight of ‘Serrana’. The relation between berry weight and number of seeds per berry was positive and highly significant. The relationships between loo-seed weight and num- ber of seeds, and between zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGF 1 00-seed weight and berry weight were weak and not consistent for all cultivars. Within and between flower position correlations are illustrated and dis- cussed. In ‘Atzimba’ and ‘R-128.6’, pollination of flowers or harvesting berries from prox- imal positions only could improve average loo-seed weight. Keywords: Berry weight; Flower position; Seed number; Seed weight; Solanum tuberosum L.; TPS zyxwvutsrqpon 1. Introduction Using true potato seed (TPS) for potato tuber production has proven to be a viable alternative to the use of seed tubers, especially in developing countries (MaIagamba, 1988 ) . For the development of efficient TPS production practices, it is important to understand the sources of variation of berrynumber, seed num- ber per berry and seed size in both open pollinated (OP) and hybrid seed pro- duction. In contrast with OP seed production, hybrid TPS production requires hand pollination, which offers the possibility to select the most productive flow- * Corresponding author. Abbreviations: TPS = True potato seed; OP = open pollinated. 0304-4238/95/$09.50 0 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSDIO304-4238(94)00736-5