ISHS Acta Horticulturae 636: XXVI International Horticultural Congress: Key Processes in the Growth and Cropping of Deciduous Fruit and Nut Trees
POLLINATION EXPERIMENT WITH THE PEAR CULTIVAR 'CLARA FRIJS' |
| Authors: | B. Falk Kühn, M. Bertelsen |
| Keywords: | Pyrus communis, cross-pollination, self-pollination, open-pollination, fruitset, fruit size, seed number |
| Abstract:
A pollination experiment was carried out to study the effects of self and cross-pollination of the cultivar ‘Clara Frijs’. Flowers were emasculated at the balloon stage and hand-pollinated three times: At the late balloon stage, at the beginning of flowering and at full bloom. The pollen used was from the cultivars ‘Clara Frijs’, ‘Anna’ ‘Premiere’, ‘Sierra’, ‘Fritjof’ and ‘Ingeborg’. In one replication, flowers were not pollinated but emasculated and bagged. Initial and final fruitset was determined. Fruit size was measured and the number of viable seeds counted. In open pollinated fruits, where seed distribution was investigated, the most prevalent number of seeds was found to be 4. Less than half of the pollinated flowers resulted in harvested fruits after no- and self-pollination; but the cultivar ‘Ingeborg’ also seemed to be a poor pollen donor. Fruit lengths and widths were lower when flowers had not been pollinated or after self-pollination and almost no seeds were found in these fruits. When the cultivar ‘Ingeborg’ was used as pollen donor it resulted in a low number of viable seeds and a poor fruitset. It seemed that most of the cross-pollinators tested succeeded in pollinating and fertilising ‘Clara Frijs’ producing good fruit and seed development. In the combinations with ‘Sierra’ and ‘Fritjof’ as pollinators the average numbers of viable seeds were higher than 5. | |
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