Proceedings of The World
Avocado Congress III, 1995 pp. 42-45
THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE AND
RELATIVE HUMIDITY
ON THE IN VITRO GERMINATION OF THE POLLEN OF AVOCADO
Marianthi Loupassaki Miltiadis Vasilakakis |
Abstract
Optimum in vitro germination of the pollen of the avocado cultivars Fuerte, Nabal, Ettinger, Bacon and Zutano occurred at 25C. Besides, significant differences among the cvs Fuerte, Nabal, Zutano and Hass regarding germination % and relative humidity requirements, for optimum pollen were shown. The most sensitive to relative humidity variation, was the pollen of Fuerte, the germination of which rose from 11.42%, when humidity was 40%, to about 50%, when kept for one hour at a relative humidity equal to 100%. In the cultivar Nabal, at variance, the germination % was already high at a relative humidity 40% and remained in the same high levels after exposure to high relative humidity. It was confirmed that increased relative humidity contributes to the preservation of avocado pollen viability.