Selection of the best pollinizer of ‘Celina’ pear

Abstract

The Norwegian newly bred pear cultivar, Celina/QTee®, which was launched in 2010, has been released from the Norwegian breeding program that was initiated in 1983. It was derived from the combination ‘Colorée de Juillet’ × ‘Williams’. In Norway the flowering is medium to late and it ripens in the beginning of September. It has large attractive fruits with a red blush. It has a good fruit quality, storability and shelf life. Cross pollination is necessary in order to have high yields of this diploid cultivar. Pollination of ‘Celina’ with pollen of four donors (‘Conference’, ‘Kristina’, ‘Anna’ and ‘Fritjof’), together with open- and self-pollination were studied in this experiment during the 2016 season in Norway. The dynamics of the pollen tube growth (third, sixth and ninth day after anthesis) in style (upper, middle and lower third) and parts of the ovary in all crossing combination, were observed by fluorescent microscopy. Besides giving the best results regarding the average number of pollen tubes in different parts of pistils and the dynamics of pollen tube growth, ‘Conference’ was the only one of which the pollen tubes didn’t show any incompatible signs while growing through the transmitting tissue of the ‘Celina’ style. According to those preliminary results, ‘Conference’ was the best pollenizer, followed by ‘Kristina’. The study has to be repeated for another season.