Productive and morphological characterization of new Sicilian seed-grown hybrids of globe artichoke

The first Italian region for globe artichoke production is Sicily, where, nevertheless, its cultivation is still anchored mainly to traditional and irrational practices such as vegetative propagation. The latter has disadvantages, such as the heterogeneity of the propagation material and the transmission of diseases from mother plants. Conversely, propagation by achene, improperly called “seed”, would contribute to the rationalization of the cultivation technique, the improvement of the phytosanitary state of the plants and the increase in yields. In Sicily there are some globe artichoke districts, i.e. places where the cultivation of the globe artichoke takes on an important economic and social significance. These districts fall within western Sicily, where ‘Spinoso di Palermo’ is traditionally grown, and in eastern Sicily, where ‘Violetto di Sicilia’ is traditionally cultivated. In the present work, four seed-grown F₁ hybrids (‘Green bell’, ‘Nap 5’, ‘Zenone’ and ‘Ernesto’) selected by a Sicilian seed company were compared with autochthonous genotypes traditionally propagated by vegetative means, in two different locations: Caccamo (western Sicily) and Pachino (southeastern Sicily). The Sicilian F₁ hybrids studied in this work were characterized from a morphological and productive point of view for the first time, thus giving a new contribution of knowledge on globe artichoke biodiversity. The most productive hybrid tested in Caccamo was ‘Ernesto’ with 22.5 t ha⁻ ¹ of fresh capitula, followed by ‘Green bell’ and ‘Nap 5’ (18.7 and 17.8 t ha⁻ ¹, respectively), while ‘Zenone’ achieved 14.0 t ha⁻ ¹. The most productive genotype tested in Pachino was by far ‘Green bell’, with 25.0 t ha⁻ ¹ of fresh capitula, followed by ‘Nap 5’ and ‘Zenone’, with 13.3 and 12.7 t ha⁻ ¹ respectively. The least productive genotypes were the vegetatively propagated ones, namely ‘Spinoso di Palermo’ (in Caccamo), with 5.6 t ha⁻ ¹, and ‘Violetto di Sicilia’ (in Pachino), with 9.2 t ha⁻ ¹.