Viability and fertility profiles of cryopreserved gladiolus pollen from 7 cultivars have shown that it is possible to use cryogenic methods for conservation and management of the haploid gene pool in this species. There was no decline in pollen viability (in vitro) levels after 1 and 10 years of cryogenic storage. Field pollinations with cryogenic stored pollen induced capsule and seed set in varying capacities. Long-term cryogenic storage of gladiolus pollen could enhance breeding efficiency through better management of the haploid gene pool resources. Pollen parents could be made available throughout the breeding programme, ensuring guaranteed supply at the time of peak stigma receptivity. A 'pollen cryobank' facility established for this species would increase genetic diversity conservation at the haploid stage.

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An experiment was conducted in the field of Indian Institute of Hortricultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bangalore during August 2006 to June 2008. The experiment consisting of eight treatment combinations were laid out in '2x4' factorial RCBD with 5 replications to assess seed set per capsule. The results revealed that highly significant differences were observed for number of well-developed seeds and underdeveloped seeds. Among four cross combinations 'H.S. 88-10-22 x Shobha' (27.63 well-developed seeds per capsule) and 'H.S. 84-7-11 x Shobha' (27.01 well-developed seeds per capsule) were significantly higher than those of other two cross combinations. The interaction effect of fresh pollen-cum-'H.S.88-10-22 x Shobha' produced significantly higher number of welldeveloped seeds (41.02 per capsule) than those of the other treatment combinations. In contrast, treatment combinations viz., cryopreserved pollen-cum-'H.S. 88-10-22 x Shobha' produced the lowest number of welldeveloped seeds (10.85 per capsule).Inclusion of fresh pollen to genotype 'Shobha' and cryopreserved pollen of H.S. 88-10-22' revealed better performances for maximum seed set per capsule.