A Study of the Compatibility and the Effects of Supplementary Pollination with Different Pollens on Fruit Set of Self-Compatible Almond Supernova'

Almond (Prunus dulcis) is one of the most important nut bearing fruit crops among temperate zone crops of the world. Since, most almond cultivars are incompatible, as far as pollination is concerned, proper and compatible pollinizers are decisive for almond commercial production. Hence, a know ledge of sufficient fruit set by using compatible pollinizers is valuable in almond production industry. Moreover, an introduction of compatible cultivars is of special importance in severe environmental conditions not suitable for either flowering or insect pollinators. In this study, the compatible cultivar "Supernova" was considered as a seed parent and was hand pollinated using collected pollen from "Shahrood 21", "Shahrood 12", "Feragello", "4-10","11-5", and "Supernova" itself using two pollination methods ("Supernova with non-emasculated vs. emasculated flowers as seed parent). Results indicated that all used pollinizers were compatible on "Supernova". Significant differences among pollinizers were observed on fruit setting in stages 2 and 3 but there wasnt any significant difference observed between the two types of pollinated flowers (either emasculated or not). The highest fruit set was achieved by using "Shahrood 21", while the lowest setting recorded when "Supernova" was forced to self pollination.