ROLE OF COMPATIBLE POLLINIZER FOR COMMERCIAL OLIVE PRODUCTION IN POTHWAR, PAKISTAN. Authors: A. Iqbal, A. Mahmood, M. A. Khan, T. Ahmad, M. Azam, M. I. N. Bhatti, A. A. Awan, I. A. Hafiz Journal: Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences (JAPS) ISSN: 1018-7081 (Print), 2309-8694 (Online) Volume: 30 Issue: 6 Pages: 1612-1621 Year: 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2020.6.0182 URL: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2020.6.0182 Publisher: Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum Abstract:

The final fruit yield is significantly correlated to fruit set which is directly dependent upon self-incompatibility (SI), pollination ability, extent of cross-compatibility among cultivars, and prevailing environmental conditions especially suitable temperature regimes during anthesis. Four Italian cultivars viz. Coratina, Frantoio, Ottobratica, and Leccino under the agro-climatic conditions of Pothwar (Pakistan) were included in these studies during the years of 2017 & 2018. Each variety exhibited different values for the initial fruit set, final fruit set, number of shotberries and extent of self-incompatibility index. The SI resulted through reciprocal crosses depicted that cv. Coratina (0.80), cv. Frantoio (0.67) and cv. Leccino (0.73) possessed partial self-incompatibility while cv. Ottobratica (0.43) was found completely self-incompatible in studied environmental conditions. Cross-compatibility results based on fruit set percentage indicated that the cultivars can efficiently pollinize other cultivars and set good fruit yield, however, the cultivars pairs Coratina/Frantoio was at top and pair of Ottobratica/ Leccino was at the bottom. Thus, the selection and plantation of suitable pollinizers in olive orchards is a prerequisite through which deficiency in fruit setting and attaining commercial yield in olive orchards could be achieved.

Keywords: olive, Pakistan, self-incompatibility index, pollinizer, cross-compatibility