Pollination and fruit set of the Protected Designation of Origin apple cv. ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’ depends on insect pollinators

Abstract

Summary Insect dependency of apple crop for pollination vary in different cultivars. The cv. ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’, is a Protected Designation of Origin apple of Greece, which lacks information on self-compatibility and needs for insect pollination for commercial fruit production. Here, the effect of wind, free (wind and insects), honeybee, free with at least one visit from a bumblebee and hand pollination was examined on fruit set and fruit characteristics. Also, the effect of flowering patches as a practice to attract pollinators in the apple orchards, on fruit quality characteristics was studied. A pollinizer apple variety and insect pollinators are necessary for successful pollination of ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’ since hand pollination with pollen of the same cv., and wind pollination resulted in very low fruit set. Single flower visits by honeybees could give fruit set, however, free pollination with at least one visit of B. terrestris resulted in higher fruit set compared to the other pollination treatments. Free pollination resulted in more fruits with higher number of seeds than wind pollination (only one fruit obtained). Apples produced from flowers adjacent to the flowering mixture patches had significantly higher skin firmness and lower total soluble solids at harvest (both desirable traits for ‘Delicious Pilafa Tripoleos’), compared to fruits from trees in naturally occurring groundcover.