Hainan ** reporter Wang Yingchun.
In front of the burly straight trunk, the scissor lift slowly rises, and it ...... farther and farther from the groundAt about 5 o'clock in the afternoon of February 20, in the Qixianling Global Tropical Fruit Expo Center in Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County, a high-altitude artificial pollination was underway.
This is a 66-year-old "old" durian mother tree, and it is also the oldest existing durian tree in China, with a height of about 15 meters. When the elevator platform rises to about 12 meters from the ground, it is the canopy of the durian tree when it looks up, and the original towering branches and leaves are close at this moment.
This has a good one! After some observation, Zhan Haibin, a staff member of the Baoting Hot Works, selected a flower that was in full bloom on the left branch. He carefully picked up the durian flower that was the paternal parent, turned over the petals, touched the durian lotus on the mother tree and shook it gently, so that the pollen on the anthers of the paternal parent fell on the stigma of the female parent.
After completing the pollination of this flower, Zhan Haibin picked up a pen and dipped it in red ink, and marked the flower stalk of the female durian lotus. “2024.2.20 "Xiu", and then, he quickly wrote these words under the small white tag and hung them. "We label the information of each hand-pollinated flower, including the pollination date and the parent**, so that it can be traced back after the fruit is set. Zhan Haibin told reporters that the paternal parent of the day came from the golden pillow variety planted by an employee of the Hot Crop Institute, of which only one flowered, which can be regarded as today's "only seedling".
What exactly is the purpose of pollinating the durian mother tree in the sky? This has to talk about the "past and present life" of the mother tree.
In 1958, the scientific research and breeding personnel of Baoting Hot Crop Institute introduced durian seedlings from Malaysia, limited by factors such as planting technology and variety breeding, and finally survived only this plant, which is now tall and burly in the garden, becoming a landmark landscape. During the long growing season, the durian mother tree showed good wind resistance and cold resistance.
This mother tree, which was introduced before the establishment of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, can be used as an excellent mother for durian variety breeding. "We want to use the durian mother tree as the mother tree and breed durian varieties with independent intellectual property rights through hybridization and other methods. Cui Zhifu, deputy general manager and researcher of Hainan Academy of Agricultural Reclamation Sciences, said.
Cui Zhifu introduced that the durian tree is cross-pollinated, and the flowers are hermaphroditic. This durian mother tree can bloom in years with high temperatures, but it is difficult for pollen to drift to the tree under natural conditions, and there are no durian trees planted around the tree, so the fruit setting rate has not been high for many years. In 2022, with the help of elevators, researchers will rise to a high place to manually pollinate, flower and fruit preservation, and the durian mother tree will end many years of "empty windows" and successfully produce more than 40 fruits.
Artificial pollination, pay attention to "coincidence", must have the same flowering period on both sides. "Compared to most durian trees in the area, the durian mother tree blooms earlier, so it is not easy to find. Cui Zhifu said. In mid-January this year, the durian mother tree will grow flower buds, and the artificial pollination work has been carried out since the eighth day of the Lunar New Year.
In the process of pollination, when encountering a higher and farther durian lotus, the staff also has a "secret" to be careful, I have to move the position. As Zhan Haibin walked slowly, the elevator platform was a little shaky, and the reporter looked down from above, and it was inevitable that he was a little frightened. After standing still, he picked up a retractable pole and used the brush at the top of the pole to dip the pollen of the male parent and reach it precisely to the flower column of the female parent in the distance.
Buzz buzz "......In the afterglow of the setting sun, swarms of bees flutter around the durian lotus, and the concentration of the staff is no less than that of pollination, standing by the branches, the faint fragrance of flowers penetrates the tip of the nose. In the past few days, the platform of the lift car has been full of naturally withering durian lotuses. It is reported that after the durian mother tree blooms, it will generally be thanked in five to seven days, and it will bear fruit in half a month to a month.