Effect of Time of Pollination and Period of Pollen Storage on Seed Yield and Quality of Brinjal Hybrid (Solanum melongena L.)

The experiment was conducted in randomised block design with two factors and three replications during kharif 2015 and 2016 at Kittur Rani Channamma College of Horticulture, Arabhavi. The time of pollination as one factor viz., pollination between 6.00 to 7.00 am (T1), 7.00 am to 8.00 am (T2), 8.00 to 9.00 am (T3), 9.00 to 10.00am (T4) and 10.00 to 11.00 am (T5) and period of pollen storage as another factor viz., Pollination with fresh pollen (P1), pollination in one day old pollen (P2) and pollination with two day old pollen (P3). The results revealed that the time of pollination between 9-10 am showed the highest number of crossed fruits retained per plant (11.11), per cent fruit set (42.77), fruit length (10.53cm), fruit diameter (7.48cm), thousand seed weight (5.76g), seed yield of crossed fruits per plant (47.73 g), germination per cent (84.34%) and vigour index (1249). Among the periods of pollen storage, the fresh pollens recorded maximum values for number of crossed fruits retained per plant (9.80 %), per cent fruit set (39.87%), fruit length (10.86 cm), fruit diameter (7.22 cm), thousand seed weight (5.43 g) and seed yield (43.25 g) of crossed fruits per plant, germination per cent (83.64%) and vigour index (1244).