THE LATEST RESULTS OF JAPANESE QUINCE (CHAENOMELES JAPONICA)

BREEDING AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

METHODS TO OPTIMIZE THE BREEDING PROCESS
EDITE KAUFMANE1*, SILVIJA RUISA 1 , IVARS NAMATEVS2 , KASPARS SUDARS2 , SARMITE STRAUTINA 1
1Institute of Horticulture (LatHort), Graudu Str.1. Cerini, Krimunu pag. Dobele reg., Latvia, *edite.kaufmane@llu.lv
2Institute of Electronics and Computer Science (EDI), Dzērbenes str.14, Riga, Latvia

1. INTRODUCTION
Chaenomeles sp. is well known as an ornamental plant. Latvia was one of the first countries in Europe to start breeding of Japanese quince as a fruit
crop for processing for its nutritional value in the 1950s. Breeding strategy was based on extensive test crosses and progeny tests in field trials. After
evaluation at the Institute of Horticulture in 2012 first cultivars were selected and registered in Latvia, after the breeding was continued. The process of
breeding Chaenomeles japonica takes 15-20 years from crossing to cultivar. To select candidate cultivars, the characteristics of several thousand
seedlings must be evaluated, which is largely done visually. However, this is a time-consuming process, visual rating and scoring is relatively subjective.
Therefore, a new approach is proposed to make the breeding process effective using AI quince detection in RGB images and 3D images.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

Two main breeding methods were used for the selection of the new cultivar:
1) selection of open pollinated seedlings in former commercial and breeding plantations;
2) hybridization of the best selected genotypes.
Location: orchard of LatHort in Dobele, the southern part of Latvia (GPS: 56.6323154; 23.3425648). Phenotypic
characterization was performed on a representative part (Chaenomeles genotypes) of the LatHort collection.
RBG image acquisition using a Samsung Galaxy A8 cell phone. Time of image acquisition: unripe quinces, June,
ripe quinces, August. 3D images acquisition using a Zivid One + 3D camera. Labelling: LabelImg version 1.8.6
software. Deep Neural Network for quince detection: YOLOv5 architecture.

Figure 1. Japanese quince AI detections with ROIs (row

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION above: unripe, class 1, row below: ripe, class 0).
Continuing the breeding work, a new cultivar 'Jānis' was selected from the extensive selection material and submitted for registration in 2023. This
cultivar is thornless, partly self-fertile, fruits are smooth, beautiful, homogeneous, 40-70 g, with valuable phenol, acid and vitamin content, ripen in the
middle of September. Shrub with erect, slightly spreading branches, productive.

LatHort and EDI have researched the application of new techniques for non-invasive
phenotyping of fruits by adapting the use of machine learning techniques, that will allow
LatHort to more effectively manage the breeding process. The created Japanese quince
dataset consists of 1515 original images of quinces in jpg format, which were divided into two
two classes: unripe and ripe quinces. The quinces were labelled in two classes, 0 for ripe and 1
for unripe with associated ground truth ROI (region of interest) in a format required for the
YOLO architecture. The quince dataset contains 17,171 ground truth ROI annotations.
Figure 2. New cultivar of Japanese quince ‘Jānis’.
Two imaginary 3D algorithms were used to develop the 3D point cloud quince detector for detecting and locating quince as a 3D object. The first one is
an imaginary square algorithm, and the second one is a projection detection algorithm.
This made it possible to have the 3D dataset of the quinces available for the further process of phenotyping their parameters. Based on the 3D
algorithms, the 3D dataset of the quinces was created. The special software was developed by EDI, which allows to locate the quince with 3D bounding
boxes on the 3D image. It allows LatHort to detect the size of the quince (height, width, depth) and index various quince parameters.

4. CONCLUSIONS
• The new Japanese quince cultivar ‘Janis’ registered in
Latvia.
• The first original, labelled Japanese quince dataset.
• The first AI detector for Japanese quince detection and
localization in RGB images.
• The average accuracy of Japanese quince detection > 70%.
• The first 3D Japanese quince model for the quince size
detection and indexing its phenotyping parameters in the
3D point cloud.
This research and APC were funded by project lzp-2020/1-0353
“Smart noninvasive phenotyping of raspberries and Japanese
quinces using machine learning and hyperspectral and 3D imaging”
and Breeding Program founded by Ministry of Agriculture.
Figure 3. 3D image acquisition using Zivid One + 3D
(left) camera, 3D quince detection (right).
5. REFERENCES
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V Balkan Symposium on Fruit Growing, Zagreb, Croatia, June 18-21, 2023