What kind of coffee is the first hybrid F1?

In coffee, it is not uncommon to name varieties with "letters + numbers", such as SL28 and SL34, which were selected by the Scot laboratory in Kenya, and F1 introduced today is also the result of a coffee variety selection program. The difference is that F1 does not refer to a particular variety, but to a type or a collection of coffee varieties.

Coffee camel rust (Hemileia vastatrix) is the main pathogen of coffee trees (the source of leaf rust). It swept the whole American continent in 1970. The genetic singleness of coffee trees in many places makes it unable to resist leaf rust, and once infected, it will be wiped out.

In order to find ways to combat the growing coffee disease, the French Centre for Agricultural Research and Development (CIRAD) and the Central American National Coffee Organization (ROMECAFE) jointly launched a new variety breeding programme, with the assistance of the Inter-American Institute of Agriculture (IIAC) and the Tropical Plant Research Centre of Costa Rica (CATIE). Through the form of cross cultivation, we want to develop a new generation of bean seeds with high yield, disease resistance and good flavor.

CATIE selected Kaddura, Kaduai, Katim, Sachem (a hybrid of Verasaci and Tim) and an ancient African wild variety Rume Sudan from hundreds of coffee varieties. Pollen from T5296 (the offspring of Sachem) was extracted and smeared on the stamens of Rume Sudan by artificial pollination.

After 5 years of efforts, CATIE has harvested a total of 100 different Cenozoic generations, and 20 of them with excellent performance were selected for breeding. The primary generations of these F1 not only have stronger disease resistance and drought tolerance, but also have the advantages of higher yield and better taste spectrum, which naturally stand out among the conventional varieties.

However, F1 also has its disadvantages, for one thing, it is difficult to achieve mass production, because the heterosis will begin to decline gradually in the second generation, that is, trait separation will occur. Therefore, most of F1 can not cultivate offspring in the way of conventional plant self-crossing, but can get a new batch of F1 plants by repeated artificial pollination or cloning, which is one of the reasons why this kind of coffee varieties are generally called F1.

So far, there are two common ways to cultivate F1: artificial pollination and test-tube cloning. The former can only be carried out on a small scale in the laboratory, and the production speed is very slow, while the latter involves a lot of research restrictions. No matter which method is adopted, once it is used in large-scale production, the input cost will be very expensive and the process will be complicated, so it is not realistic to widely use F1 in the producing area.

Seeing here, we can see that F1 coffee varieties will have three main characteristics: the name refers to the collection of a group of beans; they are derived from the cross of two genetically distinct beans; and only a group of offspring are selected. Today, we can also see some F1 hybrids for commercial use, such as H1, Evaluna, Milenio, Mundo Maya, Nayarita, Starmaya in Latin America and Ruiru 11 in Kenya. Among them, H1 and Ruiru 11 are the most common.

H1, from the Sebaco laboratory of Nicaragua, its full name is Centroamericano, which is bred by the cross between T5296 and Sudan Rume. In terms of coffee yield, H1 is 22% to 47% higher than other traditional American varieties. The leaf tip of the plant is green and has strong resistance to rust. The resistance to coffee berry disease is moderate, but it is vulnerable to nematodes.

Ruiru 11 uses Katim as the female parent, while the male parent is a complex hybrid. In 1968, an outbreak of coffee berry disease (CBD) in Kenya reduced the production of raw coffee beans by about 50%. The Coffee Research Institute in Ruiru began a breeding program to produce varieties that are immune to CBD. It took many years for breeding experts to develop the male parent of Ruiru 11, which covers the advantages of K7, SL28, N39, Rume Sudan and other varieties. In 1985, Ruiri 11, with its local name, was launched.

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