OVERCOMING SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY AND INCREASING FRUIT SET IN OLIVE TREES WITH BENZYLADENINE

In olive (Olea europaea L.) orchards, fruit set may be very low when a self-incompatible cultivar is grown without pollinizers, or the existing pollinizers differ in the time of blooming.
Since most greek olive cultivars are partly self-incompatible (Porlingis and Therios, 1973), a problem of low productivity may arise when no appropriate pollinizers are interplanted with the main cultivar.

Early tests with various chemicals for increasing fruit set in olive had no effect (Hartmann, 1950). Later, it was shown that self-incompatibility could be overcome and fruit set increased in the partly self-incompatible olive cv. “Chalkidikis” with benzyladenine (BA), (Porlingis and Voyiatzis, 1976). Cytokinins have also been found to increase fruit set in muskmelon (Jones, 1965), and to help overcome self-incompatibility in Lilium (Matsubara, 1973; Henny and Ascher, 1975).

The purpose of this work was to investigate further the role of BA in increasing fruit set in three partly self-incompatible olive cultivars, and to study some factors, as the surfuctant Tween-20 and the solvent dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), that might influence this effect.

VII International Symposium on Plant Growth Regulators in Fruit Production

D. G. Voyiatzis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.329.39