The site and temperature effect on in vitro pollen performance of some cherry cultivars

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the effect of the site and temperature regime on the in vitro pollen performance of sweet cherries ʻLapins’, and ʻBurlat’, and sour cherry ʻŠumadinka’ in order to evaluate their ability as pollen donors for some Serbian cherry cultivars. For each cultivar pollen was collected from the two sites (Beograd and Čačak). In vitro pollen performance was conducted at 17°C and 20°C. Pollen germination was determined in a medium containing 0.7% agar-agar and 15% sucrose. For sweet cherries, increasing the temperature from 17°C to 20°C resulted in a significant decrease in pollen germination and pollen tube growth, while for ʻŠumadinka’ opposite result, but without a significant difference was observed. A significant influence of the site on pollen germination was established. Higher values were recorded for both sweet cherries in Čačak, while ʻŠumadinka’ showed a better response in Beograd. The shortest pollen tubes were observed in Burlat (370.6μm) while ʻŠumadinka’ had the longest ones (830.5μm). Site and temperatures affected pollen tube growth in vitro. Different germination percentages and pollen tube growth were found among both, different cultivars located in the same place and the same cultivars from two different locations. This leads to the different environmental conditions that influenced pollen formation in each location. More evaluation, including pollen performance in vivo and fruit settings in cross-pollinated combination with Serbian cherry cultivars is needed for the proper choice of pollen donors.