Fruit Set Factors and Pollination Hass avocado flower during the functional female stage (left) and the functional male stage (right). Images taken from the department of Agriculture and Food, Government of Western Australia.
Day 1 Morning A Type flowering
Day 2 Afternoon
Morning
Female
Afternoon Male
B Type flowering
Female
Male
“A" Varieties
"B" Varieties
Hass, Reed, GEM, Maluma Hass, Carmen Hass
Zutano, Fuerte, Bacon, Ettinger, Edranol, Vista, Sharwil
Studying the temperature effects on fruit set
Female flowers tagged and dated
Minimum overnight temperatures logged
3 years, 45,000 flower tagged
So far… Preliminary results indicate:
Higher fruitset with higher temperatures
Less fruitset later in the season Take home message Warm days very important at the start of flowering, later in flowering overnight cold snaps become more significant. 1
Fruit Set Factors and Pollination Temperature effects flower timing and overlap with pollinisers
Bars show periods during the day when male flowers of the pollinisers (orange) or Hass (green) were open the same time as female Hass flowers.
Open Hass female flowers overlap with open male Hass flowers for 34.5 hours and with open male flowers from Ettinger or Zutano for 71.5 hours throughout spring 2016. Pollinators
Honey Bees
Bumble bees
Other insects
Notes
2
Fruit Set Factors and Pollination Crop load and Resources
Notes
3
Flower assessment
4
This shoot has seven floral buds indicated by arrows. Note the rounded plump shape.
This shoot has five floral buds indicated by arrows.
This shoot has two floral buds indicated by arrows.
5
6
7
8
