Improvement of fruit set and fruit qualities in persimmon 'Fuyu' using pollination

Poor fruit set of persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb) 'Fuyu' is one of the main problems for persimmon production in Thailand. In this study, effect of pollination using pollens from other persimmon cultivars namely, 'P1' both staminate and hermaphrodite flowers, 'Shogatsu' and an unknown cultivar on fruit set and fruit development of persimmon 'Fuyu' were determined. It was found that pollen from 'Shogatsu' had highest germination (17.8%) followed by pollens from 'P1' staminate and hermaphrodite flowers which were 14.2% and 11.6% respectively. Meanwhile, unknown cultivar had only 3.4% of pollen germination. Fruit set in all pollination treatments were 76-90% while in control, 2 seeds/fruit were found which means that open pollination also occurred. Only seed numbers were different between control and hand pollination treatments while other fruit characteristics namely, fruit weight, fruit size, fruit firmness and total soluble solids (TSS) were not different.