EFFECT OF FRUIT SET ON FRUCTIFICATION OF COCONUT TALL ECOTYPES FOR PRODUCTION OF HYBRID SEEDNUTS IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE

To assess the effect of coconut fruit set on the variation expression of the number of nuts yielded at the end of the fructification, a modelling approach was used. Four female parents namely Kar Kar Tall (KKT), Kappadam Tall (KPD), Sri Lanka Tall (SLT) and Vanuatu Tall (VTT) as well as four male parents known as Panama Aguadulce Tall (PNT01), Rennell Island Tall (RIT), Tagnanan Tall (TAG) and West African Tall (WAT) were involved in six crosses. The WAT was used as a control. Results showed that fruit set and fructification was female genotype and crossing-independent. Thus, the four female genotypes can be indifferently used in crossings to produce seednuts. In contrast, pollen age discriminated the male parents into two groups, especially 1) PNT01, TAG and 2) WAT and RIT. Nevertheless, the two latter male parents WAT and RIT, having provided the oldest pollen, did not induce significant differences among crosses. Fruit set explained 83.70% fluctuations of the fructification. Hence, it exerted a significant effect on the fructification variation expression. In Côte d’Ivoire, we could predict the seednuts production coming to maturity from the fruit set using the equation Nut = 0.006 + 0.774*Setfruit.