Pollination and Pollen Source Influence Fruit of Oriental Persimmon `Fuyu' and `Tanenashi'

Abstract

Fruit characteristics of Oriental persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) [`Fuyu' (Expts. 1 and 2) and `Tanenashi' (Expt. 3)] were assessed as a function of five pollination treatments: 1) hand-pollination (HP) with `Gailey' pollen (G); 2) HP with `Nishimura Wase' pollen (NW); 3) HP with `Turkeytown' pollen (T) (not used for `Tanenashi'); 4) open-pollination (OP), which did not necessarily result in pollination; and 5) nonpollination (NP) where pollination was prevented by covering the flower. Final fruit set of `Fuyu' and `Tanenashi' was higher for G and NW pollen than for NP. Differences in fruit set among the remaining treatments depended on the particular experiment. For example, fruit set for OP was higher than for NP in Expts. 1 and 3 but not Expt. 2. Fruit weight and soluble solids concentration (SSC) of `Fuyu' were not affected by treatment in Expts. 1 and 2; however, in Expt. 2, fruit height and diameter of G, NW, T, or OP were larger than for NP. Seed count per fruit was inversely related to fruit development period but did not influence fruit size or SSC. Fruit height, diameter, weight, and total soluble solids of `Tanenashi' for G, NW, and OP exceeded those for NP, although rarely were seeds present.