Fruit set and parthenocarpy in ‘Manzanillo’ olive under cross-pollination.

Abstract

 The cross-pollination influence on the fruit set and parthenocarpy on twigs of ‘Manzanillo’ adult olive trees using different sources of pollen was studied. During two seasons (2004 and 2005) different sources of pollen (varieties) were applied to twigs of mature ‘Manzanillo’ olive trees, surface-irrigated and previously covered with cloth bags; pollen was hand-applied when previously tagged twigs showed 50-75% open flowers. On both years, fruit set was improved when ‘Sevillano’ (S) and ‘Barouni’ (B) pollen was applied, achieving higher values at the second season; lower fruit set values were obtained when using self-pollinated ‘Manzanillo’ (T) (2004) and ‘Misión’ (M) (2005) pollen sources. The cross-pollination increased the fruit set. The amount of FP ranged from zero to very low values during the 2004 season, whereas during the 2005 season values ranged from 5 to 70%. The benefits of using S and B pollen was observed by reducing the amount of FP fruits to lower than 10%, whereas using M pollen 70% of FP were obtained.