The objective of this work wasstudy the influence of pollination on seeds production of'Murcott' tangor. The experiment was carried out in the Centro de Citricultura Sylvio Moreira/IAC, Cordeirópolis, SP, Brazil, in 1999/2000 season. Flowers of 'Murcott' tangor plants, 13 years old, were treated as follows: 1. Pollination with 'Valencia' sweet orange; 2. Pollination with 'Natal' sweet orange; 3. Pollination with 'Pera' sweet orange; 4. Pollination with 'Ponkan' madarin; 5. Isolation of complete flower; 6. Isolation of emasculated flower; 7. Check (free flower). In October of 2000, the fruits were harvested. The greatest percentage of harvested fruits was obtained in the treatments with 'Natal' sweet orange (20%) and 'Valencia' sweet orange (16%). No fruits were obtained in treatment 6, suggesting that this tangor doesn't develop partenocarpic fruits. An increase of seeds occurred in treatments 1 (12/fruit) and 2 (10,3/fruit) in relation to the check (9,1/fruit) and a reduction occurred in treatments 3 (6,8/fruit), 4 (6,3/fruit) and 5 (5,9/fruit), what makes the influence of pollination in this fruit characteristics evident. No significant differences were observed in acidity and soluble solids of the juice. These results suggest that 'Murcott' tangor plantings could be planted next or intercalated to 'Pera' sweet orange and'Ponkan' mandarin plantings, or planted isolated by windbreaks.
mandarin; citrus; cross pollination; Citrus reticulata Blanco x Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck
