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Fruit set and quality of loquats (Eriobotrya japonica) as effected by pollinations under sub-

humid Mediterranean

ARTICLE in SCIENTIA HORTICULTURAE · MARCH 2008

Impact Factor: 1.37 · DOI: 10.1016/j.scienta.2008.03.012

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4 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:

Nawaf M. Freihat

Jordan University of Science and Technology

9 PUBLICATIONS 43 CITATIONS

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Abd Al-Majeed Al-Ghzawi

Jordan University of Science and Technology


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Zaitoun Shahera

Al-Balqa' Applied University


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Available from: Zaitoun Shahera

Retrieved on: 17 March 2016

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Fruit set and quality of loquats (Eriobotrya japonica) as effected by pollinationsunder sub-humid Mediterranean

Nawaf M. Freihat a,*, Abd Al-Majeed Al-Ghzawi a, Shahera Zaitoun b, Ahmad Alqudah a

a Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordanb Department of Plant Production and Protection, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Al-Salt, Jordan

1. Introduction

Loquat Eriobotrya japonica, is a small, evergreen fruit tree that

blooms in falls and early winter. Loquats are successfully grown in

the Mediterranean and are well adapted to subtropical and

temperate climates ( Jonathan et al., 2006; Demir, 1987). In general,

loquats are found between 20 and 358 North or South latitudes,

however, they can be cultivated up to 458 latitudes (Lin et al.,

1999). Well-established trees cantolerate a drop in temperatureto

12 8C (Demir, 1987), and temperatures above 35 8C may

negatively affect tree growth ( Jonathan et al., 2006). Flowers are

small, (white or yellowish) borne on terminal panicles of 30–100

flowers or more. Fruits are pomes, 3 or 4 fruits per cluster are pear-

shaped, 2–5 cm long and weigh an average of 30–40 g and 1–10dark brown seeds ( Jonathan et al., 2006). The seeds comprise about

20–30% of the weight of the whole fruit. The peel is smoothing to

slightly downy, light yellow to orange. The pulp is white to light

yellow to orange, 6.7–17 8Brix, sweet to sub-acid,and juicy. Loquat

fruits contain vitamins (A–C), minerals (phosphor and calcium),

mineral salts, sweet acid and sugars (Demir, 1987).

Data on pollination of loquat is very limited. Although, they are

considered as self-compatible species, cross-pollination improves

fruit set and size ( Jonathan et al., 2006), and total soluble solids

content (Cuevas et al., 2000).

Loquats are notevaluatedyet forpollination requirements under

Jordanian conditions. The pollination requirements seem to vary

with cultivars, but all are benefited by, and some require, cross-

pollination (Crescimanno, 1958), and generally result in 10–17%

increased in production over self-pollination (Morton, 1987).

Crescimanno (1958) reported that 6% of fruit set was obtained

with cover flower, 13% under open conditions, and 55–60% of fruit

set under cross-pollination. It has been reported that loquats are

pollinated by various insects, including bees ( Apis sp.), syrphids,

houseflies, Myrmeleontidae, Bombinae, and Pieris rapae (L.) ( Jonathanet al., 2006).

Martı́nez-Calvo et al. (2000) reported that the low fruit set and

small fruit size are common when bee activity and pollen transfer

from other genotypes is often precluded. On the other hand,

previous experiences have shown us the strong influence that seed

number exerts on loquat fruit size and also that a high proportion

(65%) of fruits harvested in a solid orchard of ‘‘Algerie’’ possesses

only one seed despite relentless activity of bees and bumblebees

(Salvador-Sola, 1999). Cuevas et al. (2000) reported that, when

cross-pollen was used or no restrictionto bee activitywas imposed

(open-pollination) number of fruits per panicle and fruit size were

Scientia Horticulturae 117 (2008) 58–62

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article history:

Received 14 February 2008

Received in revised form 7 March 2008

Accepted 19 March 2008

Keywords:

Loquat

Pollination

Bees

Jordan

A B S T R A C T

A field experiment was conducted during 2005 and 2006 growing seasons at Ras Munif (328220N,

358450E), Ajloun, Jordan, to evaluate different pollination treatments and their effects on fruit set and

quality of loquat fruit grown under Mediterranean conditions. Open, supplemental, rain, and covered

pollination treatments wereimposed on the selectedtrees. Results showed thatunder supplemental and

open-pollination, extremely higher fruit set was obtained compared with rainand coveredtreatments. In

spite of a heavy crop load, fruits obtainedunderopen andsupplemental pollination werealso heavier and

larger, this could be partly due to a significant increase in seeds andfleshweight. Sugar content wasgood

for both open and supplemental pollination. Wind plays little or no role in loquat pollination process.

Loquat flowers attracted very limited number of bee visitors, A. mellifera, Anthophora albigena and

Xylocopa violo cea of family Apidae and Halictus quadricinctus of family Halictidae were recorded the only

loquat flower visitors. They showed a variation in their visiting time but loquat flowers attracted the

highest rate and number during the mid of the day.

2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author.

E-mail address: [email protected] (N.M. Freihat).

C o n t e n t s l i s t s a v a i l a b l e a t S c i e n c e D i r e c t

Scientia Horticulturae

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / s c i h o r t i

0304-4238/$ – see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2008.03.012

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very high, resembling usual set of this species. In addition, fruit

sugar content produced under open and cross-pollination was

higher than estimated sugar content for self-pollination fruits, also

open-pollinated flowers formed more seeds than self-pollinated

ones, but less than flowers that were hand cross-pollinated.

Benefits of cross-pollinationcan be explainedfor higher and earlier

fertilization that caused fruits with more seeds (Cuevas et al.,

2000). The objectives of this study were to determinewhether fruit

set and quality are affected by rain, open and/or supplemental

pollination treatments.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Site description and plant material

The study was carried out in 2005 and 2006 growing seasons in

Ras Munif (328220N, 358450E, 1200 m elevation), in Ajloun district,

northern Jordan. It is characterized by a Mediterranean climate of

chilly rainy winterwith 800 mm annual precipitation, andrelatively

hot dry summer with an average of 28 8C. However, some olives,

deciduous and forest trees are domesticated in this region.

2.2. Insect collection and identification

Field observations were conducted three days per week, from

November to late December to measure flower insect visitors and

the visitation frequency. Bees were caught by a nationalpark net by

sweepnetting the bees that had visited the flowers of loquat treesin

thetransect area. During collection, honeybee workers were leftfree

after counting. Visitation frequency was obtained as the number of

single-visit flowers for each insect species during the observations.

The collected specimens were kept in special insect boxes supplied

with foam plates for pinning, and naphthalene galls to enable long

storage withoutpest damage.Voucher specimens of beesare kept in

the Laboratory of Beekeeping, Faculty of Agriculture/Jordan Uni-

versity of Science and Technology.

2.3. Pollination treatments

Eight uniform non-irrigated ‘‘Akko 13’’ loquat trees nine-year-

old, spaced 6 m 6 m were randomly selected for this study. Each

tree was divided into four sections, whereas ten clusters on each

section were marked and labeled and the pollination treatments

were randomly distributed among them. The treatments were

open-pollinated (natural pollination by insects and wind),

supplementary pollination (addition of pollen artificially), cover

pollination (prevent pollination by insects by using a net bag with

1-mm 1-mm mesh size) and rain treatment (opened flowers

were sprayed with water to stimulate the rain effect). Since,

flowers of the same cluster was not open at the same time, rain

treatment was repeated three times at three days interval, until allflowers were finally sprayed with water. The pollination treat-

ments were repeated four times and arranged in a randomized

complete block design. Group of flowers on the marked clusters of

the supplemental pollination treatmentwas carried out with brush

containing abundant pollen, obtained by collecting recently

opened stamens from different flowering trees of the same

cultivar. The clusters were monitored weekly until fruits were

harvested on May 10th. However, trees were covered with green

nets to protect the fruit from birds.

Number of flowers and fruits for each cluster were recorded in

November 2005 and 2006. Fruit were harvested on May, 10th

when 80% of the fruit turned to yellow color. Number of fruits per

cluster, fruit weight, number of seeds per fruit, seed weight, flesh

weight, fruit diameter and flesh thick for all treatments were

recorded. Total soluble solids (TSS) 8Brix was measured using

refractometer. Flesh percentage and fruit set percentage were

calculated by using the following formula:

Flesh ð%Þ ¼ flesh weight

freshweight 100

Fruit set ð%Þ ¼numberof fruit

numberflower

100

Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Collected

data were analyzed using SAS. Means were compared using least

significant differences (LSD) test at 0.05 probability level.

3. Results

3.1. Insect visitors

E. japonica trees opened their flowers in early winter, therefore,

flowers were visited by very restricted numbers of insectspecies. A

total of 240 bees were visiting loquat flowers in a total of 20 census

days as shown in Table 1. The most frequent visitor species were A.

mellifera with 85.0% (n = 204), Anthophora albigena with 7.5%

(n = 18), Xylocopa violocea with 2.9% (n = 7) of family Apidae andHalictus quadricinctus of family Halictidae with 4.6% (n = 11). All

four insect visitors collected pollen, nectar and/or both resources

together at all census time (Fig. 1). A total of 380 visits to loquat

flowers were recorded in a total of 20 census day.

Fig. 1 shows the average visitation rates performed by the four

bee visitors of loquat flowers at different time of the day. The

greatest proportion of resourcesgathering by honeybees as well as

Halictus sexcinctus occurred during the early hours of the day

between 10 and11 a.m. Thereafter, the bee worker decreased their

foraging activity on loquat flowers gradually during the day and

ceased by the end of the day. A. albigena engaged during the very

early hours of the day (7–8 a.m.) in pollen and nectar collection

from loquat flowers. X. violocea bees showed the highest foraging

activity between 10 and 11 a.m. of the day. Both bee visitors

Table 1

Diversity and number of bee species visiting flowers during the study period

Family Genus Species No. of collected

bees (n = 240)

Percent

Apidae Apis Mellifera 204 85

Anthophora Albigena 18 7.5

Xylocopa Violocea 7 2.9

Halictidae Hal ic tu s Qua dr ic in ct us 11 4.6

Fig. 1. Visitation rate of bees to loquat flowers during the day time.

N.M. Freihat et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 117 (2008) 58–62 59

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declined their foraging behavior steadily and their activity ceased

by the end of the day.

3.2. Pollination effect

Year hadno effect on flower number perpanicle in both years of

study (Table 2). However, significant differences in fruit number

and fruit set were recorded among pollination treatments.

Supplemental pollination produced the highest fruit number

and fruit set, followed by open, rain, and the covered treatments,

respectively. Fruit set under rainy condition was extremely low,

with an average of (4.4%) and even worse than that of the control

(7.7%) fruit per panicle. However, the proportion of the fruit set in

supplemental, open, and covered treatments were 67%, 45%, and

7.4% as a minimum in both years of study.

Physical properties of loquat fruits were also influenced by

pollination treatments in both years (Table 3). Greater weight and

fruit diameter were obtained under open and supplementalpollination conditions. Fruit weight significantly increased to

(20 g) in supplemental pollinationand to (17 g) in open whereas in

covered treatment the fruit weight was 7.5 g as a maximum.

Furthermore, rain and cover treatments had a negative effect on

fruit weight and diameter. Pollination treatments considerably

manipulated seed number. Open and supplemental treatments

yielded the highest seed number and weight in both years,

whereas the values of these parameters were significantly reduced

to a minimum in rain and control treatments.

A greater increase in flesh thickness was more pronounced

under open-pollination conditions, exceeding control treatment

by 280% (Table 4). Supplemental and rain treatments produced a

fruit of similar flesh thickness 0.31%, and the lowest was for the

covered treatment 0.21%. Flesh weight significantly increased

under open and supplemental pollination treatments in compar-ison with the controls, whereas fruit flesh percent did not

exceed 66% in rain and control treatments. Flesh percent

of developed fruits noticeably improved under open and

supplemental pollination conditions, while the rates in other

treatments including the control were almost close to each other.

Results indicated that sugar content of the fruit followed the

same trend as that observed in fruit flesh percent. Fruits picked

from open and supplemental pollination treatments contained

almost twice the amount of sugar obtained from the rain and the

covered treatments.

4. Discussion

Despite the presence of pollen and nectar at the same flower,the diversity of bee visitors was very low, which are about 7.5% of

the total bee species identified in Jordan (Al-ghzawi et al., 2006).

This could mainly be due to late flowering that coincides with

unfavorable weather condition, mainly low temperatures, that

affects bee activities. This is in contrast to the results obtained by

Michener (2000) and Al-ghzawi et al. (2006) on the richness of bee

fauna in the Mediterranean climate. The most frequent visitor was

honey bees (85%) of the total number of visitor, while the rest

visitor species were engaged only in nectar collection in a very low

numbers that means their contributions to loquat pollination

seem to be small and unreliable. The increased in fruit set under

Table 2

Effect of pollination treatments on fruit number and fruit set of ‘‘Akko13’’ loquat

fruit

Trea tments Parameter

Year No. of

flower/cluster

No. of

fruit/cluster

Fruit set

percent

Open 2005 49a 22b 45b

2006 51a 23b 45b

Supplementary 2005 50a 34a 68a

2006 52a 35a 67a

Rain 2005 49a 2.5d 5.1d

2006 53a 2.0d 3.7d

Cover (control) 2005 50a 4.0c 8.0c

2006 54a 4.0c 7.4c

LSD (0.05) 7.6 1.1 2.1

Means followed by different letters, in each column, are significantly different at

P = 0.05 according to LSD test.

Table 3

Effect of pollination treatments on fruit weight, diameter, number and seed weight

of ‘‘Akko13’’ loquat fruit

Treatm ent s Parameter

Year Fruit weight

(g)

Diameter

(cm)

Seed/fruit Seed

weight (g)

Open 2005 20.3a 3.3a 3.6a 4.3a

2006 20.4a 3.4a 3.2a 4.1a

Supplementary 2005 17.6b 2.0b 3.3a 3.8a

2006 18.9b 2.1b 3.5a 4.1a

Rain 2005 6.8c 1.5c 2.2b 2.3b

2006 6.2c 1.3c 2.1b 2.1b

Cover (control) 2005 7.5c 1.3c 2.3b 2.6b

2006 7.1c 1.4c 2.6b 2.5b

LSD (0.05) 1.35 0.25 0.54 0.58

Means followed by different letters, in each column, are significantly different at

P = 0.05 according to LSD test.

Table 4

Effect of pollination treatments on flesh thickness, weight, percentage, and 8Brix of ‘‘Akko13’’ loquat fruit

Treatments Parameter

Year Flesh thickness (cm) Flesh weight (g) Flesh percentage (%) Sugar content 8Brix

Open 2005 0.59a 16.0a 78a 13.0a

2006 0.61a 16.3a 80a 12.6a

Supplementary 2005 0.31b 13.7b 78a 13.3a

2006 0.32b 14.8b 78a 13.1a

Rain 2005 0.31b 4.5c 66b 7.6b

2006 0.29b 4.1c 66b 7.7b

Cover (control) 2005 0.21c 4.9c 65b 7.6b

2006 0.20c 4.6c 65b 7.2b

LSD (0.05) 0.03 1.5 3.4 0.84

Means followed by different letters, in each column, are significantly different at P = 0.05 according to LSD test.

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open-pollination treatment indicate that bees play a vital role in

improving the quality and quantity of loquat fruits.

Results indicate that loquat has too many to flower and few to

fruit. Flowers are being pollinated by wind and insects, since fruit

set was increased under open condition compare to rain and

covered treatment. Pollination is undoubtedly controlled by

weather conditions such as rain, which reduces or inhibits

pollinators’ activity (Eisikowitch et al., 1991), and negatively

affects production in almond (Griggs and Iwakiri, 1964). Our

results are in agreements with those obtained by Ortega et al.

(2004) who observed a significantly lower fruit set in ‘‘Marta’’

almond when it rained after pollination Artificially applied pollen

to loquat flowers has also a great influence on fruit set, which

means that wind did not act properly as a means for pollination

and/or the low fruit set under self-pollination suggests that the

contact between pollen tubes and ovules may be an inadequate

estimation of successful fertilization as reported by Cuevas et al.

(2003), and in part due to low temperature during November,time

of flower opening, that negatively affect bee activity (Eisikowitch

et al., 1991). This observation directly leads to the conclusion that

loquat trees have to be closely planted to ensure good crop. Low

temperature (12 8C) during flowering or an early stage of fruit

development in mangoes may interrupt fertilization or ovuledevelopment (Whiley et al., 1988). However, supplemental

pollination did not consistently provide significant increase in

the number or percentage of flowers pollinated due to sufficient

pollen coming from pollinators (Coates et al., 2006; Zaitoun et al.,

2007). Even with very careful application of pollen in Hamamelis

virginiana, supplementing pollen loads through out-crossing did

not result in dramatic increases in fruit set of Hamamelis

(Anderson and Hill, 2002). Open-pollinated flowers produced

highest fruit weight and diameter, this is in agreements with the

results obtained by Cuevas et al. (2003) on ‘‘Algerie’’ loquats, who

reported that despite a higher crop load, fruits obtained under

open and cross-pollination were heavier and larger, at least partly

due to a significant increase in the number of seeds, however,

supplemental pollinated flowers did not, which is expected, sincethe number of fruit per panicle was lower for open (22 fruits) than

(34 fruits) for supplemental pollination. It is well known that fruit

is a major sink site in plant and do compete for carbohydrates

especially fruits of the same cluster (Bawa and Webb, 1984;

Guitián, 1994; Medrano et al., 2000). However, low fruit or seedset

of certain flowers on the inflorescence may be attributed to

insufficient quality or quantity of pollen (Lee, 1988); there have

been reports of species in which fruit and seed production are

independent of position within the inflorescence (Zimmerman and

Aide, 1989). Competition could also be among the ovaries of an

inflorescence for a limited amount of resources; fruits initiated

early, and/or located close to the source of nutrients, sequester

more resources than fruit initiated later and/or located more

distally (Lee, 1988).The patterns of fruit weight, diameter, seed number and weight

were similar and negatively affected by rain and covered

treatments; this could be attributed to the fact that flowers under

such conditions may not receive enough pollen (Lee, 1988; Berry

and Calvo, 1991). Setting of fruit underrainy andcoldconditionhas

great probability of failure particularly if insects are required to be

as a pollinator agent (Ortegaet al., 2007) and in partdueto changes

in stigma receptivity under such unfavorable environmental

condition (Clarke et al., 1979).

As far as the number of seed per fruit is concerned, open and

supplemental pollinated flowers had the highest values, because

these flowers has received the required amount of pollen plus the

proper environmental condition that help the fertilization process

to proceed on which is essential for seed formation (Wallace et al.,

1996). The number of seeds produced per fruit and the proportion

of ovules producing seeds may be simultaneously subject to other

restrictions that cause low seed production per fruit when

available resources increase (Medrano et al., 2000).

Flesh weight andthickness were highlyimprovedwhen flowers

are naturally pollinated, while supplemental pollination produced

higher number of fruit per panicle with lower flesh weight and

thickness; this difference could mainly be due to the competition

among fruits for food and nutrients which is more pronounced

under supplemental pollination (Bawa andWebb,1984;Lee, 1988;

Guitián, 1994).

Fruit sugar contents was not affected neither by open nor by

supplementary pollinationsince we do not have any foreign pollen

of other cultivars, while it does under rainy and covered condition;

this means that sugar content has a lot to do with proper

pollination and fertilization in loquats, it has been reported that

sugar content of loquat fruits could positively or negatively

be affected by pollen parent, ‘‘Xiangtian’’, ‘‘Zaozhong No. 6’’,

‘‘Taicheng No. 4’’, ‘‘Moriowase’’ and ‘‘Golden Nugget’’ pollen

significantly increased total sugar content, while pollen from

‘‘Changhong No. 3’’ decreased total sugar content (Xu et al., 2007)

and rephrased as ‘‘and also could negatively be affected by

improper pollination and eventually fertilization as in case of rainand covered treatments under this experiment conditions

(Table 4).

5. Conclusions

It is concluded that fruit sugar content as well as flesh percent

did improved under open and supplemental pollination. Rainy

weather conditions during the flowering time adversely affect

most of thestudiedparameters, and thefruit set in particular. Since

wind did not act as a good pollination agent, it is recommended to

have some honey bees and/or wild bees close to loquat tress to

ensure good crop.

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