Incompatible pollen tubes in the plum style and their impact on fertilization success

Abstract

The pistils of plum (Prunus domestica L.) cv. 'Cacanska Lepotica' were self- and cross-pollinated in order to investigate occurrence of incompatible pollen tubes in the style, and their impact on fertilization success. The investigation also included open pollination variant. The highest percentage of these stopped the growth in the upper third of the style. Under cross-pollination variant, 15.4% and 12.1% of pollen tubes observed in the upper part of the style in the first and the second years of study, respectively, were found incompatible. In view of the above parameters, in the self-pollination variant, 15.0% and 17.0% of pollen tubes were found incompatible by years. As for the open pollination, percentages of incompatible pollen tubes in the upper part of the style by years were 14.0% and 14.4%, respectively. The occurrence of incompatible pollen tubes did not influence the fertilization success in these pollination variants.