Pollen fertility at different flowering times and its effect on seed setting of some bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) varieties in Ho Chi Minh city

Abstract

In the hybridisation process, pollen grains directly participate in the process through flower pollination. Pollen grain quality determines fruit formation and seed setting. In this study, the pollen grains of the local bitter gourd variety (BD2) and F1 commercial variety were collected at 8 different flowering times (8-11h30) for fertility evaluation in the 2020 Spring-Winter crop season in Ho Chi Minh city. Self-pollinate the 2 varieties over 8-9 hours to evaluate their ability to set seeds. The obtained results indicated that the local variety (BD2) had the highest fertility pollen (61.26%) at 08:30 am and the lowest (46.22%) at 9:00 am. Meanwhile, the F1 commercial variety showed the highest fertility pollen (94.05%) at 11:30 am and the lowest (79.58%) at 8:00 am. The fertility of variety BD2 is 60.21%, resulting in 33.50 seeds per fruit in which the percentage of mature seed is 71.72%. Similarly, the commercial variety found the pollen fertility is 85.55%, resulting in 11.25 seeds per fruit in which the percentage of mature seeds is 84.90%. This information is useful for bitter gourd hybridisation.