Study of compatibility of six sweet cherr (Prunus avium L.) cultivars with "shoa-o-saltaneh" cultivar

Most sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars are self-incompatible and have problems of ‎fertilization and fruit set. To produce commercial crops they need compatible and suitable ‎pollinizers. The compatibility of “Zarde Daneshkadeh”, “Protiva”, “Sorati Lavasan”, “Haj-Yosefy” ‎and “Meshkin Shahr” cultivars with “Shoa-o-saltaneh” as seed parent studied in a randomized ‎complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The compatibility of various pollens on ‎‎“Shoa-o-saltaneh”, studied with two methods of controlled pollination and observation of pollen ‎tube growth with fluorescence microscopy. The results of the controlled pollination method showed ‎that “Meshkin Shahr” and “Protiva” cultivars are compatible and “Zarde Daneshkadeh”, “Sorati ‎Lavasan” and “Haj-Yosefy” are incompatible. The mean of fruit set in “Shoa-o-saltaneh” cultivar ‎using pollen grain of “Zarde Daneshkadeh”, “Protiva”, “Sorati Lavasan”, “Haj-Yosefy” and ‎‎“Meshkin Shahr” were 0, 4.2, 0.2, ,0.4 and 15.7 percent respectively. The results show that sweet ‎cherry cv. “Shoaosaltaneh” is a self-incompatible cultivar (fruit set = 0) and it needs compatible and ‎suitable pollinizers for fruit set. The microscopic examination of pollinated flowers showed that ‎pollen tube of “Meshkin Shahr” cultivar reached to the ovary in 96 hours after pollination. These ‎observations confirm the results from field controlled hybridization.‎