Abstract
We investigated fruit set and fruit quality of a hexaploid ‘Fuyu’ pollinated with pollen from two different strains of nonaploid persimmon to explore the possibility of a novel cultural practice for seedless ‘Fuyu’ fruit production. Pollen from both nonaploid strains germinated normally, with their pollen germination rates being lower than that of a hexaploid ‘Zenjimaru’, but more than equal to that of ‘Akagaki’. Although a much higher rate of fruit set was observed with pollinated ‘Fuyu’ than non-pollinated ones, the fruit set rate was lower after pollination with pollen from nonaploid plants (nonaploid pollination) than from hexaploid plants (hexaploid pollination). Seeds from nonaploid pollination grew as well as those from hexaploid pollination until 44 days after full bloom. However, the growth of the seeds from nonaploid pollination slowed down and finally stopped, resulting in about two thirds of the final size of seeds from hexaploid pollination. In terms of the fruit weight, sugar content, and skin color, fruit from nonaploid pollination was almost indistinguishable from that from hexaploid pollination, while flesh firmness was lower with nonaploid than hexaploid pollination.
