Trials for prolonging pollen grains storability in pollination Saidy date palms grown under new valley conditions

Abstract

This study was undertaken during 2017 and 2018 as a trial to extend the storability of pollen grains in date palm cv. Saidy grown under New Valley environmental conditions. To overcome the problem of decreased pollen grains in the new cultivation areas with high female density without giving attention to male cultivation in addition to solve pollen grains of each good male varieties. The treatments included storing of pollen grains under room temperature (25 _ 30 0 C), cooling at 5-7 0 C for one year and freezing at -18 0 C for two, four or eight years. Percentages of pollen viability and germination, fruit setting %, yield, bunch weight and fruit quality in response to the present treatments were investigated. Pollination with fresh, refrigerated, cooled and room temperature stored pollen grains, in descending order succeeded in improving the percentages of pollen viability and germination, fruit setting %, yield, bunch weight and fruit quality. Increasing storage durations was followed by decreasing all the studied parameters. The best method of storage was freezing process at -18 0 C followed by cooling at 5-7 0 C. Storing at room temperature occupied the last position in this respect. Pollination of Saidy date palms at 2 days after cracking with fresh pollens or freezed pollens at -18 0 C for two years gave the best results with regard to yield and fruit quality. Hence, it could be concluded that freezing pollen grains for two years to used them for pollination.