THE OLIVE CULTIVAR 'PICUAL' IS AN OPTIMAL POLLEN DONOR FOR THE CULTIVAR ¿BARNEA¿

Most olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivars are almost completely self-incompatible. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal pollen donor/s for the olive cultivar ‘Barnea’. The study was based on artificial cross pollination as well as molecular paternity analysis of ‘Barnea’ fruits sampled from commercial olive orchards. We assessed the dates and duration of the flowering of 11 commercial olive cultivars, in order to determine their optimal period of effective cross pollination. Artificial cross pollination of ‘Barnea’ flowers with the donors ‘Picual’, ‘Coratina’ and ‘Askal’ showed fruit set rates similar to those obtained in open pollination. ‘Arbequina’ showed a much lower fruit set rate and attempts at self-pollination of ‘Barnea’ showed it to be totally self-incompatible. Based on molecular paternity analysis, the ‘Picual’ cultivar was identified as the most frequent pollinator of ‘Barnea’ trees in commercial olive orchards, even when located further away from the ‘Barnea’ trees than various other cultivars.
In conclusion, ‘Picual’ has been tentatively identified as a superior pollinator of the ‘Barnea’ based on several parameters. We believe that the yield of ‘Barnea’ trees will improve if their pollination by ‘Picual’ trees is encouraged by planting these upwind in olive plantations.