The viability and fertilizing ability of pollen of the different storage dates of the lines-restorers of fertility of winter rapeseed in greenhouses

To fasten breeding process of winter rapeseed hybrids, in V.S. Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops, a phytotron-greenhouse complex is used to obtain additional generations of plants. We studied the viability and fertilizing ability of pollen of nine lines-restorers of fertility and four maternal CMS-lines with purpose to determine optimal conditions for the hybridization in a greenhouse, which provide maximal amount of seeds. It was stated pollen of only open flowers of lines-restorers of fertility possesses the high viability - about 80-98%. When storing in a darkness at a room air temperature of 22-24 °C during 24 hour, pollen loses the viability by 2.0-2.5 times depending on a genotype. However, such important lowering of the pollen viability does not influence significantly on setting of seeds and seedpods. The seed formation in hybrids obtained after crossing with paternal lines having the viability of a day pollen from 15 to 52% did not distinguished significantly. The acceptable level of seed formation in hybrids was observed when using pollen with a storage period until five days. When using pollen storing for ten days at a temperature of 22-24 °C, seeds were not formed at hybrid combinations. There were detected the significant differences by the fertilizing ability between studied lines-restorers of fertility. So it is necessary to pay attention to this trait when developing commercial hybrids. The lowered fertilizing ability of pollen of the concrete restorer of fertility will influence the yield of hybrid seeds on the hybridization plots.