Abdolreza Kavand, Ali Ebadi, Yahya Dehghani Shuraki and Vahid Abdosi
Date palm is one of the most important tropical fruits. It is a dioecious plant which needs artificial pollination for commercial fruit set. Pollen grains play an important role in the size, shape, weight of fruit and time of ripening, as metaxenia phenomenon. Favorable fruit production is related to quality of pollen and its compatibility with a certain female variety. The preparation of suitable medium is necessary for in vitro pollen germination of date palm cultivars. Existence of boron and calcium in medium are necessary for germination and pollen tube growth. In this experiment, the best concentration of boric acid and calcium nitrate was determined for pollen germination of 3 cultivars i.e. Jarvais, Fard and Beraem in a factorial based on completely randomized design, using Brewbaker and Kwack [5] modified medium. Medium containing 50 mgl-1 boric acid and 100 mgl-1 calcium nitrate, was the best for ‘Beraem’ pollen germination (85.47%). In this medium, the maximum pollen germination of ‘Fard’ cultivar was 64.49%. However ‘Jarvis’ pollen had highest germination (77.59%) in the same medium but with a concentration of 150 mgl-1 calcium nitrate. Thus, the different concentrations of B and Ca elements were most effective on date palm pollen germination for the mentioned cultivars.
