Two annona (Cherimoya) species namely; A squamosa (local cultivar called
known as Baladi) and A atemoya (Cherimata variety) were pollinated during flowering
periods of Using alternative treatments and self pollination to study the effect of
pollination date on fruit set and fruit qualities, fruit maturity periods, percentages of
harvested fruits and harvest dates. The research aimed to decreasing labors coasts
by selecting the most effective dates for hand pollination to increase yield and fruit
qualities and controlling the maturity period needed for growers under similar
environments to send fruits to markets in suitable time for high gains and offer fruits in
different dates. The research also help in choosing suitable pollinators for each
cultivar in each date for increasing yield by hand pollination. The data indicated better
fruit set reflecting high compatibility using A atemoya (Cherimata variety) treatments
either as male or female parents especially during July in both seasons with slight
differences between dates due to changes in flowering duration in both seasons.
Generally, the maturity periods were higher for pollinated flowers during early and
mid-flowering and decreased at the end of flowering season. The fruit qualities
showed wide range of differences not only related to pollination dates but also due to
variety differences, season and relations between different criterias such as fruit
weight and dimension, seed number and weight, peel weight., TSS and acidity.
Significant differences were found between dates of pollination of self Asquamosa
treatment (for fruit length, acidity in 2001 and fruit weight, length, seed weight and
TSS in 2002) and between dates of pollination of Asquamosax A atemoya
(Cherimata) for seed weight in 2001 and between pollination dates of self Aatemoya
(Cherimata) treatment for seed number, peel weight and TSS in 2002, while all other
treatments showed non significant differences between pollination dates. It was
general!y found that pollination treatments during July produced higher percentages of
fruits than those treatments during June and the harvest was higher in October than
November.