Abstract

The objective of the study was to select pineapple hybrids derived from the cross between MD2 and Trat Si Thong varieties for fresh fruit quality. The 318 hybrids were planted (one plant per hybrid) in a farmer's field, Si Racha district, Chonburi province. The data including fruit weight, flesh color, eye depth, shell thickness and °Brix were collected and analyzed using the K-mean clustering analysis assigning ten groups. The results showed that group 2 (2,737 g) had the highest fruit weight mean followed by group 9, 4, 6 and 5, respectively. Group 1 (17.16 °Brix) had the highest °Brix mean followed by group 7, 10, 5 and 6, respectively. Group 2 (1.83 score) had the highest flesh color mean followed by group 5, 9, 10 and 4, respectively. Group 8 (4.83 score) had the highest eye depth mean followed by group 3, 7, 1 and 10, respectively. Overall resulted revealed that group 10 gave a high mean for °Brix, flesh color score and eye depth score, while group 5 showed a high mean for fruit weight, °Brix and flesh color score. When considering pineapple hybrids in each group, the results found that M-79-21, MPK-58-21, M-50-13, M-79-15, M-2-35, M-17-3 and M-50-22 hybrids had both quantitative and quality traits suitable for fresh fruit consumption comparing with check varieties.