The effect of pollen storage temperatures on fruit set and fruit quality of ‘Deglet Nour’ date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivar

Nabila El Kadri [Carthage University, National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia, Laboratory GREEN-TEAM LR17AGR01, Tunis, Tunisia]
Mehdi Ben Mimoun [Carthage University, National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia, Laboratory GREEN-TEAM LR17AGR01, Tunis, Tunisia]

The aim of this research was to study the effect of three temperatures during the long-term storage of date palm pollen (25±2, 4, and -20 °C) on fruit set and the fruit quality of ‘Deglet Nour’ cultivar. The experimental design included pollen collected in different geographic regions. The overall comparison between temperatures showed that pollen stored at 4 °C had a significantly higher fruit set (40.6±16.7%) than pollen stored at 25±2 °C and -20 °C (31.9±16.8% and 34.8±19.4%, respectively). For each used storage temperature, the resulting fruit set was almost unaffected by the geographic origin of pollen. However, comparison between the aptitudes of pollens from each location to preserve their pollination potency under the different storage temperatures revealed some similarities among pollens from the same type of oasis and location. Pollen stored at 4 °C improved, significantly, the fruit water content (27.4±8.2%) compared to fruits obtained by flowers pollinated with frozen pollen (-20 °C) and stored at room temperature. However, other fruit traits (fresh weight, flesh weight to seeds weight ratio, juice total soluble solids, pH and titratable acidity) did not show any variation under the effect of different pollen storage temperatures.

DOI: 10.26353/j.itahort/2020.3.5363

Keywords: pollen storage temperature, geographic location, fruit set

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El Kadri, N. and Ben Mimoun, M. (2020) 'The effect of pollen storage temperatures on fruit set and fruit quality of ‘Deglet Nour’ date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivar', Italus Hortus, 27(3), pp. 53-63. doi: 10.26353/j.itahort/2020.3.5363