Effect of Incomplete Pollination on the Physical Quality Attributes of Apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) cv. Red Delicious

An investigation was carried out at Commercial orchard, Shalimar (Jammu & Kashmir) during 2016-17 to find out the effect of different stigma excision levels (incomplete pollination) on the physical characteristics of Apple fruit (Malus × domestica Borkh.) cv. Red Delicious. The six treatments were pinching off 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 styles below the stigma from each of forty flowers per side. The remaining stigmata were hand-pollinated on the second day following treatment. Flowers were pollinated with Golden Delicious pollens. Only flowers with five stigmata were used and each flower was considered an experimental unit. The results revealed that the maximum fruit length (7.09 cm), fruit diameter (7.34 cm), shape index (0.96), fruit weight (203.21g), fruit firmness (8.15 kg/cm2), seed number (8.57), were recorded in fruits from flowers with no stigma pinched. Therefore, indicating that improved seed set (proper pollination) provides a relatively inexpensive and efficient practice to improve the physical quality attributes of apple fruit.