Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of pollen source in four litchi cultivars i. e. ‘Rose Scented’, ‘Calcuttia’, ‘Early Seedless’ and ‘Late Seedless’ as a result of self, cross and open pollination methods during two successive years 2013 and 2014. The two years’ pooled data showed that the cross pollination methods significantly improved the physical and chemical characteristics of fruit such as fruit weight (24.33 g) in Late Seedless × Early Seedless, fruit volume (23.75 ml) in Late Seedless × Early Seedless, total soluble solids (21.91°Brix)in Rose Scented × Early Seedless and minimum titratable acidity (0.45%) in Late Seedless × Rose Scented, while the maximum aril seed ratio (22.41) in Late Seedless × Late Seedless and titratable acidity (0.59%) in Calcuttia were estimated in self and open pollination methods, respectively, during both the years. The minimum fruit weight (18.39 g) in Calcuttia × Calcuttia, fruit volume (17.65 ml) in Calcuttia × Calcuttia and total soluble solids (18.40°Brix) in Early Seedless × Early Seedless were recorded in self pollination methods during both the years. The total sugar, reducing sugar and nonreducing sugar content did not differ significantly among the different pollination methods. Overall, increased fruit physical and chemical characteristics under the cross pollination suggest that the inclusion of cross-pollinators in litchi orchards may be beneficial for improving the fruit quality characteristics.