It is important that the pollen used in controlled hibridization has a high germination percentage. There are different ways to test pollen viability: 1. by staining 2-in vitro pollen germination; 3- in vivo germination test; 4-fruit set, obtained by using the pollen to be tested. In the present work, performed in 2004, a comparison was made among the three first methods above. Pollen samples of five cultivars , Esmeralda, Eldorado, Granada, Maciel and Vanguarda ,collected in 2003, were used in the experiment. The culture medium for in vitro germination tests was constituted by 10g of sucrose and 1g of agar dissolved in 100ml of distilled water. Twigs with flowers on balloon stage were collected and taken to the laboratory where they were placed in recipients containing water. The procedure used was the one described for light microscopy using differential dye, in order to observe the pollen tubes on the stigma or in the pistil. Propionic carmin was used as a dye for the staining method of pollen viability evaluation. Variance analysis showed differences among cultivars, among methods and a highly significant interaction between cultivar and method. The staining method using propionic carmin as a dye gave higher percentage of viability than in vivo germination for all the tested cultivars. In vitro germination was statistically equal to in vivo germination , except for cultivars Esmeralda and Granada for which gave higher germination percentages. However, the largest differences between the two methods was 10.03% in cv. Esmeralda, which in spite of being statistically significant, practically would be acceptable for routine tests. It was concluded that in vitro tests using the culture medium is representative of the in vivo situation while the staining procedure was not reliable.
In vivo test; in vitro test; pollen germination
