Stigmatic receptivity was evaluated during the female stage by
measuring the ability of the stigma to support pollen adhesion and
pollen germination. Sixty ‘Hass’ flowers were hand pollinated in
the field by direct contact with the anthers of ‘Fuerte’ male flowers
at three different times: at flower opening in the female stage, in
the middle of the female stage and just before the female flowers
started to close. Hand pollinated flowers at each time were fixed
the next day and the fixed pistils were prepared and squashed for
microscope observations (see Section 2.9).