Cross-compatibility Between Olive Cultivars In Wudu

Olive is an ancient woody oil species originated in the Mediterranean region, it has been domesticated for thousands years. The climate of Gansu, Sichuan,Yunnan and other places in China is similar with Mediterranean region, olive industry has been rapidly developed since it was introduced. Olive is not only self-incompatibility, but also reflected in cross-incompatibility to some extent. It is necessary for the yield abundantly and stably to plant with cross-compatibility variety couples.The study was conducted in a mixed olive orchard atWudu District of Longnan City, Gansu Province.24 olive trees(20 cultivars) were identified byphenotypicquantitative traits, qualitative traitsand SSR data, and theiroffspringswere analyzed by SSR markersto determine the pollen donors. Meanwhile, climatic data, flowering bloom time, the ratio of hermaphrodite flowers, pollen germination and pollen tube were investigated. We compare the biological differences in flower bloom periods between olive varieties, evaluate the suitability of cultivars when pollinatingto find cross-compatibility couples.It will not only provide the foundation for the pollination disposition of olive orchards in order to improve the fruit set, but also provid the referencefor parental selection in olive cross breeding,wich is important to improve the yield and quality of fruits in local.The conclusionsare as follows:1.Olive flowering bloom period of the orchard is in May. The climate is suitable for olive flowering pollination and fertilization.The main wind in flowering peirod is from south-east,accompanied occasionally with a strong wind from southwest or northwest.The maximum temperature is around 25℃and the minimum relative humidityis between 10% and 36%.2. The identification of varietyindicates that Picholine is ought to be the cultivar ‘Picual’ and Ascolana Tenera is not the cultivar ‘Ascolana Tenera’. There are 22 cultivars in fact, NO.10 and NO.14 are not the same cultivar. It has differences between the results of clustering analysisused by phenotypic quantitative and qualitative traits with SSR markers.The clustering analysis with qualitative traits and SSR markers indicates that NO.7 and NO.16 are Kalaman, NO.23 and NO.26 are Picual, NO.1 and NO.20 are Frantoio, NO.4 and NO.5 with NO.15 are Jiufeng7.Varietyidentification should use phenotypic qualitative traits firstly.SSR maekersshuould be combined to identify varieties with similar phenotypic characters.3.The flowering period begins from May 11 to May 28 in the orchard, lasts 18 days. The flowering periodof 22 cultivarsare not the same, about 8~ 11 days. The earlier flowering cultivars are Pendolino, Huyette and Grossane.The later ones are UN2, Croatia, Korneiki, UN14 and Picual. It has significant differences between 10 main cultivars in the investigation of the perfect flowers percentage and pollen vigor Pollen vigor. Cultivars with higher perfect flowers percentageare Frantoio(100%), Zhongshan24(82.64%), Leccione(87.01%), E-zhi8(90.83%).The lower ones are Picual(28.50%) and Grossane(31.09%).Cultivars with higher pollen vigor are Zhongshan24,Grossane and Picual.The lower ones are and Jiufeng6, E-zhi8 andLeccione.4.The effective pollination distance of 3 olive cultivars(Korneiki, Croatia, UN10)in the olive orchard is 15 m, 20 m and 10 m.5.The cross-compatibility cultivar combinations are Frantoio × UN2, UN2 × UN3, Frantoio × E-zhi8, Croatia × Korneiki, UN10 × UN13,Frantoio × Chenggu53, Kalamon ×UN17. When Jiufeng7 is pollinated by Korneiki or UN17, Croatia should pollinate for the pollination varieties. When Mastodisis pollinated by Frantoio or UN3, UN2 should pollinate for the pollination varieties. When Kalamonis pollinated by Korneiki, Croatia should pollinate for the pollination variety.When Zhongshan24 or Huyette are pollinated by UN10, UN13 should pollinate for the pollination variety. The combinations of Frantoio×UN2, UN2×Jiufeng7, Kalamon×Mastodis, Mastodis×Jiufeng7, Kalamon×Korneiki, Korneiki×Jiufeng 6, Korneiki × Zhongshan24, Zhongshan24 × Huyette, Huyette × UN13, UN14 × Huyette, UN14×UN13, UN14×Jiufeng7, UN14×UN17, Kalamon×Jiufeng7, Jiufeng7×Grossan are cross-incompatibility and not suitable for pollination combinations.