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Abstract
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One of the main problems in tissue culture propagation of some date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars is occurance of abnormal phenotypes such as low levels of normal fruit set and setting of multi carpel fruits which is common in tissue culture – derived plants of cultivar 'Barhee' and some other prone cultivars and may be attributed to ineffective pollination or incompatible pollen for female flowers Hence, in order to improve normal fruit set, yield and quality effect of ten different pollen treatments (Gantar, Ghannami, Mazafati, Jarvis Gantar, Jarvis ghannami, Jarvis Mazafati, Zahidi Gantar, Zahidi ghannam, Zahidi Mazafati and Zahidi Jarvis ) was evaluated on 14- year old tissue culture – derived Barhee trees at the time of natural opening of female spathe in Dashtestan region. The study was carried out for two successive years in a randomized complete blocks design (RCBD)with three replicates. In both years, fruit set traits were measured five weeks after pollination and fruit and seed physical traits at khalal stage. Also, qualitative traits of fruit and bunch weight was measured in Tamar stag in the first year and in khalal stage in the second year of the study. According to the results obtained during the two years of the study, Mazafati pollen and then Zahidi Gantar pollen treatment were recognized as the best for increase in normal fruit set and decrease in percentage of parthenocarpic fruits. Considering all the measured physical fruit and seed traits, Mazafati pollen followed by Jarvis Gantar pollen treatment showed the best performance among all treatments. In case of fruit qualitative traits, Jarvis Ghannami and Ghannami pollen treatments were superior compared with other treatments totally. Altogether, Mazafati pollen was chosen as the superior pollen source for pollination of Barhee trees of this study.
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