Biological analysis of flower and the impact of pollination on the quality and quantity of two Olive cultivars

Olive (Olea europaeaL.) is an evergreen plant which belongs to Oleaceae family. In an attempt to investigate the impact of pollination and branch direction as well as the interaction effect of these two treatments on the quality and quantity of fruit in two varieties of yellow and Mary olive in the region of Fars, an experiment was carried out during 2005-2006. The experiment was conducted with three treatments of pollination (i.e. self-pollination, open pollination, and wind pollination without the interference of pollinating insects) in four replications following a randomized complete block design by means of net in four main geographical directions of yellow and Mary olive trees. The results indicated that in comparison to self-pollination, open pollination significantly increased the yield level at P<0.01 in the two cultivars. Self pollination resulted in an increase in the number of parthenogenetic and unnatural fruits which reduced the yield and quality of these fruits in comparison to the open treatment. The variance analysis of yields demonstrated genetic differences between cultivars as an indication of production power. The comparison of open pollination treatment and wind pollination without the interference of pollinating insects was not significant. The highest and the lowest percentages of full flowering were respectively observed in the southern and northern directions. An increase in full flowering in the southern part resulted in an increase in the amount of initial fruit. However, after the primary and secondary flower loss, no significant difference was observed in the final fruit formation.