Influence of staminodes removal on performance of hand-pollination of cacao flowers. In: Agrotrópica v. 21 p. 199-204, 2009.

Abstract

The expansion of cacao plantations in western Amazonia has created an annual demand of 7.1 million hybrid seeds for planting. In view of this demand the hand-pollination process, without flower-protecting devices, was adopted on the seed production orchard of Rondônia. The method requires the removal of all five staminodes to facilitate access to the pistil, demanding ability and time. We evaluated the effects of staminode removal on the performance of hand-pollination and on the fertilization rate of cacao flowers. Newly opened flowers of the male (ICS 1 clone) and female (SCA 6 clone) parents, assumed to be unvisited by pollinators, were used. One to five staminodes per flower were randomly removed, in five periods of time. For each period, 70 hand per flower were randomly removed, in five periods of time, and 70 hand pollinations were performed and the time spent recorded. On each of the 15 days of evaluation, three workers performed 350 hand pollinations each. The pollination efficacy was not affected by the removal of staminodes, regardless of the number. The mean fertilization rate was 63.3%. Highly significant differences were detected between the pollination periods and the workers' performance (p < 0.01). A highly significant interaction was verified between the time of the study and the workers' performance (p < 0.01). The average time spent to pollinate 70 flowers was 38.1 minutes. The best times were 36.2 and 36.7 minutes for the removal of one and two staminodes, respectively. The strategy of cutting just one staminode represents an economy of about 10% in comparison to the conventional method.