Mohammad Mhnna*⁽¹⁾ Faisal Douay⁽²⁾ and Fadel Al-Qaiem⁽³⁾

(1). Siano Research Station, Scientific Agricultural Research Center of Lattakia, (GCSAR), Lattakia, Syria.
(2). Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.
(3). Scientific Agricultural Research Center of Lattakia, (GCSAR), Lattakia, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Eng. Mohammad Mhanna, Siano Research Station, Scientific Agricultural Research Center of Lattakia, (GCSAR), Lattakia, Syria.
E-Mail: Agrihort@yahoo.com. Mobile: +963 0999160267).

Received: 15/02/2015                         Accepted: 12/03/2015

 Abstract

The research was conducted in 2013 and 2014 at Bouqa region- Latakia governorate, Syria, to study the self-sterility on olive cultivars i.e.  “Khodeiri”,  “Frantoio”  and french  “Picholine, and its influence on commercially useless fruits” Shotberries “by evaluating self-incompatibility and  “shotberries”  ratios which are developed after self- vs.- open- pollination, also anatomical studies of fruits were conducted to estimate the fertilization if so. The results showed that the pollen viability was adequate and over 64% for all cultivars. All studied cultivars were suffering from self-incompatibility in different degrees (ISI_khodeiri=0.21-0.24, ISI_picholine=0-0.09, ISI_frantoio=0.12-0.19). Self-pollination produced high ratios of commercially useless fruits “Shotberries” and their ratios increased in 2014 season due to drought. Anatomical study showed that all “Shotberries” were seedless and were produced from un-fertilized flowers, which caused this an irregular development. Shotberries were completely dropped before harvesting time. The results confirmed the importance of planting a mixture of cultivars in olive fields to improve production and reduce the ratio of unwanted commercially useless fruits.

Key words: Olive, Parthenocarpic fruits, ISI.

Full paper in Arabic:  العقم الذاتي في بعض أصناف الزيتون وتأثيره في تشكل الثمار البكرية
(Shotberries)