Effect of Pollen Source on Qualitative and Quantitative Characteristics of Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L.) Fruit cv. ‘Zard Daneshkadea’

Most sweet cherry cultivars are as found as self-incompatible and therefore for commercial fruit production, compatible pollinizers are needed. Controlled pollination and microscopic examination of pollen tube growth in the style are two classical methods for determination of compatible and incompatible pollen donor cultivars. This experiment was carried out to explore the compatibility of ‘Zarde Daneshkadea’ as a seed parent cultivar with ‘Sefid Rezaieh’,‘Napoleon’, ‘Abardeh’, ‘Bing’ and ‘Shabestar’ as pollen parent cultivars in using hand pollination and controlled hybridization technique. Eight samples of pollinated flowers (pistil) using different treatments were maintained and fixed in FAA solution for further microscopic examination. In order to determine the effect of pollen source on the fruit qualitative and quantitative characteristics, some fruit criteria were evaluated. According to the microscopic examination of pollen germination on the stigma and pollen tube growth within the style, pollen of ‘Shabestar’, ‘Sefid Rezaieh’ and ‘Napoleon’ cultivars very well germinated on ‘Zarde Daneshkadea’ stigma with the pollen tube getting into the ovule within 96 to 120 hours after pollination. The studied cultivars showed compatibility with ‘Zarde Daneshkadea’ cultivar. In addition, microscopic examinations showed self-incompatibility for ‘Zarde Daneshkadea’ cultivar. Therefore,‘Zarde Daneshkadea’ is a self-incompatible cultivar and according to the obtained results ‘Shabestar’, ‘Sefid Rezaieh’ and ‘Napoleon’ cultivars are suitable polinizers. Also pollen tube growth of `Abardeh’ and ‘Bing’ cultivars stopped in the first third length of style of ‘Zarde Daneshkadea’, so showed incompatibility with this cultivar. Although, some obtained results showed differences between fruit length and width and in addition significant differences were observed in some replicates on seed weight, fruit length, fruit width and percent soluble solid contents (?Brix), but further we suggest supplemental research on the effect of pollen source on fruit quality is needed and suggested.