3. Results and discussion
Germination of fresh pollens of three mango cultivars was examined using in vitro germination, FDA and acetocarmine tests.
Regardless of cultivars, different viability tests showed differential results.
Comparatively higher pollen viability was observed using acetocarmine test; however, in vitro germination test showed low pollen germinability.
In the present study, the cultivars difference for pollen germinability and viability was found to be non-significant for fresh pollen (p ≥ 0.05).
Similarly, the interaction effect of cultivar and pollen viability testing method was also found to be non-significant (p ≥ 0.05).
Pollen viability tests also proved that fresh pollen in mango cultivars had higher viability.
The maximum in vitro germination of fresh pollens was found in ‘Sensation’ followed by ‘Tommy Atkins’ and ‘Janardan Pasand’, which had non-significant differences.
Fresh pollen in vitro germination and pollen viability when confirmed by acetocarmine test in all three mango cultivars was non-significant (p ≥ 0.05).
However, viability of fresh pollen observed using FDA test showed significant differences among mango cultivars (p ≤ 0.05) and ‘Sensation’ had the highest pollen viability followed by ‘Janardan Pasand’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’ (Table 1).
Earlier, Martinez-Gomez and Gradziel (2002) also reported higher germination of freshly collected pollen in almond.