Journal article
Pengaruh Teknik Penyerbukan Terhadap Pembentukan Buah Naga (Hylocereus Polyrizhus) [the Effect of Pollination Technique to Fruit Development of Dragon Fruit (Hylocereus Polyrizhus)]
The flower size of dragon fruit plants is large and a hermaphroditic nocturnal flowers. Cross pollination of the dragon fruit plants occurs because of the wind, pollinator, and humans. The aim of the research was to determine the effect of pollination technique on fertilization of dragon fruit flowers (Hylocereus polyrizhus). This research was conducted at Aripan Experimental Field, Indonesian Tropical Fruit Research Institute (ITFRI) from August to September 2014. The treatments consisted of: (A) natural open pollination (control), (B) the flowers were isolated with paper bags and allowed to self pollination, (C) the flowers were isolated with paper bag and hand self pollinated when flowers were blooming in the evening. Furthermore all pollinated flowers were isolated with paper bag again (hand self pollination), and (D) the flowers were castrated and emasculated then they were isolated with paper bag. Cross pollination was done with pollen from the other plants. The all pollinated flowers were isolated with paper bag again (hand cross pollination). Each treatment consisted of 37 flowers of dragon fruit plants. Data were analyzed by using paired t test 0.05. The results showed that different of pollination techniques on dragon fruit plants were produced of different fruit grade. Percentage of superior grade on natural open pollination higher than the other treatment, even though the open pollination had smallest of percentage of fruit set. The implication of this research is that the dragon fruit flower pollination may be done naturally without human assistance.