3.2. Ovule FDsem compared with final FDfin
FDsem and FDfin ranked the high and low FD lines similarly (Table 1). FDsem was higher than FDfin because the ovules were about 4% of the final seed surface area due to growth dilution, although there appeared to be some difference between lines in that percentage. Glasshouse FDfin values were of a similar magnitude to field data (Fig. 3). FDsem values were similar to the findings of Davidonis et al. (2005) and Lovell et al. (2007) who found a range of 3200–6000 initials mm−2 and an average of 4060 initials mm−2 in ‘Siokra V-15’ (Reid, 1995). In this study, differences could be seen between the contrasting FD lines. In contrast, Davidonis et al. (2005) reported fibre initials were not significant among two genotypes but final mature FD counts were.