ISHS Acta Horticulturae 591: III International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds
INTRODUCING SUITABLE POLLINIZERS FOR 'AHMAD-AGHAII' PISTACHIO (AN IRANIAN COMMERCIAL CULTIVAR) |
| Authors: | H. Alipour, A.V. Azghandi, A. Esmailpour |
| Keywords: | pistachio, pollination, pollinator selection. |
| Abstract:
In order to find the most suitable pollinators for the 'Ahmad-Aghaii' pistachio cultivar, this experiment was conducted in the Pistachio Research Institute, Rafsanjan, Iran, during 1999-2000. Six male phenotypes, which had appropriate flowering overlap with 'Ahmad-Aghaii', were selected for controlled pollination, originally from the progenies of seed-raised trees including 'Jandaghi' (R21), 'Harati' (R22), 'Kalleh-Ghochi' (R23), 'Hassan-Zadeh' (R25), 'Ghazvini' (R26) and P. khinjuk. Six limbs (twigs), each having 3 to 5 flowering buds, were chosen on each of 5 'Ahmad-Aghaii' trees (as replication) to be pollinated with the above-mentioned pollen sources and one limb to be open-pollinated. Before blooming, chosen limbs on the female trees were isolated and covered using pollen impermeable cloth bags. At blooming time, these bags were removed for a few minutes and two male inflorescences were tied on each limb close to the female inflorescence and covered with the cloth bag again. More pollen from each of the pollen sources was injected into the bags using syringes. Fruit-set, blank nuts, unsplit nuts, nut size (nuts per ounce) and kernel weight were recorded at the time of harvesting. Data were analysed using a Randomized Complete Block Design. Results show that pollination using pollens of R22 and R26 cultivars had the highest fruit-set percentages (9.99%), while pollination using pollens of P. khinjuk gave the lowest fruit-set (3.68%). The open-pollinated treatment produced more split nuts and less blank nuts compared to the other pollen sources. Pollens of R22 and R26 types gave the highest fruit-set and kernel weights, but showed no significant differences in other recorded parameters. Therefore, these two male types were determined as the most suitable pollinators for 'Ahmad-Aghaii'. | |
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