Pollen storage procotol for pumpkins(Curcubita Moschata)

Abstract

A field trail was conducted at the University of Zambia, School of Agricultural Sciences Field Station from mid December, 2001 to late April, 2002. The purpose of this trial was to develop a practical method for long-term pollen storage of pumpkin {curcubita moschata). Pollen was subjected to four (4) treatments namely, fresh pollen, dried for one hour , two hours and three hours and stored for 1 month at -20 C before use in pollination.Only fresh pollen gave a successful fruit set of 71%, the rest of the treatments were unsuccessful. The possible reason for the failure could be drought.