Pollen viability testing.

Abstract

Abstract Pollen viability is essential for success in pollination. Fresh pollen shed from flowering male inflorescences has the highest viability, and it is this which is harvested and stored (Ekaratne and Senathirajah, 1983). Viability tests are carried out prior to processing pollen to ensure the harvested pollen has high viability, and again after storage to monitor viability decline with time in storage. Viability testing provides information on pollen quality and when resampling is required. It also determines the ratio of pollen:talc to be used to maximize pollination success with minimal impact on pollen stores. There are many methods that test pollen viability; the standard one described here is based on pollen germination, it is simple and inexpensive. Pollen with high viability is vital in promoting high seed set and acceptable seed numbers for oil palm breeding and commercial seed production, and various techniques have been developed to test for pollen viability (Nasution et al., 2009). Here, we provide a simple method using pollen culture and a light microscope.