Efficiency of hand pollination in different pea (Pisum) species and subspecies

With a view to optimise the hand pollination procedures for different pea species and subspecies, eight accessions belonging to Pisum fulvum, Pisum sativum ssp. elatius (wild), P. abyssinicum and P. sativum ssp. sativum (cultivated) were used to compare the mean number of seeds per crossed flower (crossing efficiency) using three methods of pollination: 1) immediately after emasculation of a flower bud before the anthers burst; 2) after opening of the flowers emasculated as above (delayed pollination) and 3) double pollination combining the first two methods. In the cultivated species, the seed setting did not differ much between the methods. In wild peas, single pollination after flower opening gave similar or better results than single pollination immediately after emasculation. Double pollination in most cases gave results comparable to single pollination after flower opening. In accession JI3262 of Pisum sativum ssp. elatius with exceptionally large flowers, single pollination after flower opening appeared twelve times as efficient as pollination after emasculation. Delayed pollination may be recommended for crossing wild peas.