Pollen viability and Pollen Germination Studies in Low Chill Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] Cultivars in the Subtropics of North-West Himalayas

Author: Vikas Kumar Sharma, Manika Goswami, Som Dev Sharma and Kaushal Attri

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Abstract

Pollen studies in Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) were carried out at Fruit Research Farm of College of Horticulture and Forestry Neri, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh during 2018 -2020 to assess the viability and germination of pollen of six cultivars (Pratap, Earligrande, Flordaprince, Shan-e-Punjab, Glohaven, Royal Paradelux ) of Peach. The aim of the study was to find the compatibility behaviour of the cultivars which will be helpful for the breeders in deciding the parental combinations where hybridization can be achieved successfully and to have an understanding of performance of cultivars as pollinizers. Pollen viability of the peach germplasm was determined using 2% acetocarmine while germination studies were conducted with different sucrose concentrations (10%, 15% and 20%) and boric acid (50 ppm, 100ppm, 150ppm). Highest pollen viability was recorded in Flordaprince (97.78 %). In general, most of the cultivars showed maximum germination of fresh pollen with 10 per cent sucrose

Keywords

Peach, pollen viability, germination, acetocarmine, tricolporate

Conclusion

In this experiment on pollen viability and pollen germination, different peach cultivars exhibited good results with respect to viability and germination of their pollen. Hence, it can be concluded that breeders should include these low chill varieties which can perform better in hybridization studies. The pollen viability and germination was found best in cultivars Floraprince and Earligrande which shows that these cultivars can act as pollinizers for pollination of commercially growing cultivars. The results indicate that varieties Earligrande and Flordaprince are the best performing varieties and can be utilized as male parents in the cross combinations in various breeding programmes. These studies have demonstrated the suitability of best performing varieties in hybridization and to understand the compatibility behavior of cultivars under study.

References

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How to cite this article

Sharma, V.K., Goswami, M., Sharma, S.D. and Attri, K. (2021). Pollen viability and Pollen Germination Studies in Low Chill Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] Cultivars in the Subtropics of North-West Himalayas. Biological Forum – An International Journa