Studies on Pollen Viability of Pollen Parent and Stigma Receptivity of Seed Parent in Hybrid Seed Production of Tomato Under Shade House

Abstract

A shade house experiment was carried out to study the pollen viability of pollen parent and stigma receptivity of seed parent in hybrid seed production of tomato under shade house at Hi-Tech Horticulture unit, Saidapur farm and seed quality analysis at seed quality testing and research laboratory National Seed Project, UAS Dharwad, during 2012-13, The experiment was laid out in female and male block system separately and totally 1200 flower buds were crossed, among which 20 flower buds were crossed with respect to each treatment in each replication and different colour threads were tied to the pedicel of the crossed buds as per the treatment for easy identification. The experiment had two factors with 4 and 5 treatments respectively in three replications, factor one pollen viability of pollen parent (P) and factor two - stigma receptivity of seed parent (R). Two day-stored pollen treatment P2 exhibited significant differences for various parameters such as fruits set (67.68%), fruit weight (95.13g), number of seeds per fruit (114.83), seed weight per fruit (0.38g), seed weight per plant (7.44g) and seed recovery (0.40%). Germination percentage (92.40%), root length (9.7), shoot length(8), seedling vigour index (1648) and seedling dry weight (5.50 mg-10) were significantly higher when used for crossing. Pollination two days after emasculation recorded significantly higher fruits set (67.68%), fruit weight (95.13g), number of seeds per fruit (114.83), seed weight per fruit (0.38g), seed weight per plant (7.44g), seed recovery (0.40%) germination (94.33%), seedling vigour index (1760) and seedling dry weight (5.86 mg 10) followed by R-Pollination three days after emasculation, R,-Pollination one day after emasculation, R₁-Pollination four days after emasculation and Ro-Pollination on the same day of emasculation.