EVALUATION OF POLLEN VIABILITY IN DATE PALM CULTIVARS UNDER DIFFERENT STORAGE TEMPERATURES

Abstract

Date palm is a dioecious monocotyledonous plant which belongs to Arecaceae family. Date palm pollen retains viability for a single growing season. Air dried pollen was enclosed in sealed capsules and stored at 4°C, -20°C and -80°C for different storage periods (1, 3, 6, 12 months). Pollen viability of fresh and stored pollen was determined by in vitro germination and staining test. After thawing, stored pollens were cultured in petri dishes and incubated at three different temperature i.e., 20°C, 25°C and 30°C for different time periods (3, 6, 12 and 24 hours). Pollen grains looking normal and stained red were considered viable, whereas weakly stained or colorless were recorded as non viable. Germination test showed that pollen of cultivar Khadrawy stored at -20°C had higher germination (71.22%) when incubated at 30°C for 24 hours after 12 months of storage while least was in Hillawi i.e. 34.86%.