Effect of pollen exclusion by bagging limbs or caging trees on Packham's Triumph pears

Abstract

The effects of excluding foreign pollen by bagging limbs or by caging whole Packham's Triumph pear trees under Goulburn Valley conditions, were studied for several years at the Horticultural Research Station, Tatura. The initial fruit set on bagged unpollinated limbs was similar to that of bagged pollinated or open pollinated limbs. The final fruit set on bagged unpollinated limbs, however, was only one-third that of limbs receiving foreign pollen by hand under bagged conditions or those that were open pollinated. The fruit on self-pollinated limbs, was misshapen and completely seedless. Similar results were obtained by exclusion of foreign pollen from whole trees using hessian cages. A single hand pollination of flowers on caged trees using Williams' Bon Chretien pollen resulted in a good set of fruit similar ib shape and size (though with fewer seeds) to those on open-pollinated Packham trees planted adjacent to Josephine de Malines trees.