Effect of Mode of Pollination on Fruit Set and Fruit Characteristics in Litchi

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during 2017 and 2018 at active field gene bank of ICAR-National Research Centre on Litchi to assess the effect of open cross pollination and self-pollination on fruit set and fruit characteristics in litchi. Nine cultivars of litchi were selected for study and result indicated that fruit set ranged from 17.41 to 68.14 per cent with maximum in ‘Ellaichi’ and minimum in ‘Shahi’. The only three cultivars ‘Ajhauli’, ‘Dehradoon’ and ‘Rose Scented’ carried out fruit (0.28, 0.41 and 2.11%, respectively) at harvest under self-pollination condition while all nine cultivars carried out fruit at harvest ranged from 1.23 to 3.16 with maximum in ‘Rose Scented’ and minimum in ‘Dehradoon’ under open cross pollination. ‘Dehradoon’ had shown 3.23 fold more fruit set at harvest under open cross pollination as compare to self-pollination, similarly ‘Rose Scented’ and ‘Ajhauli’ has shown 2.98 fold and 10.5 fold, respectively more fruit set at harvest compare to self-pollination. The fruit weight was heavier in all three cultivars ‘Dehradoon’ (21.46 g), ‘Rose Scented’ (20.37 g) and ‘Ajhauli’ (18.95 g) in open cross pollination as compare to self-pollinated ‘Dehradoon’ (19.67 g), ‘Rose Scented’ (18.89 g) and ‘Ajhauli’ (17.35 g). The relatively self-incompatible was observed in ’Late Large Red’, ‘Ellaichi’, ‘Dehradoon’, ‘Rose Scented’ whereas severely self-incompatible was found in ‘Shahi’ and ‘Ajhauli’. The completely self-incompatibility was observed in ‘Trikolia’, ‘Dehra Rose’ and ‘Deshi’.