Effect of pollination and thinning treatments on fruiting of some date palm cultivars under New Valley conditions [electronic resource]

Includes bibliographic reference

Pollination and thinning are considered among the important basic procedures for Madjool, Segae, and Khodry palms in terms of their effect on yield and fruit quality, in addition, regularizing the annual production of the date palm.
The development of pollination technology, which leads to an acceptable level of fruits with the use of a small amount of pollen as well as economic thinning methods are necessary to improve the productivity of date palms, especially in dry conditions.
This examination was carried out on Madjool, Segae, and Khodry date palms for the progressive seasons 2020 and 2021 in Dakhla Oasis, New Valley Governorate, Egypt.
Pollination with 0.5 and 1.0 g of pollen grains supplemented with 100 gm sugar/L water as well as fruit thinning by removing 10, 20, 30, and 40% of fruit /spathe were done. The results showed that the use of pollen suspension at 0.5 g + 10% sugar solution as well as fruit thinning at 20 or 30% had a decrement
percentage of bunch weight by about 5.65, 8.44 and 13.01 % over the control, as an average of the two studied seasons, respectively. The highest fruit weight (18.60, 19.48, and 20.87 g) were obtained from spraying the pollen suspension solution as well as removing 20 and 30% of the fruits, which resulted in an
increment percentage of 20.00, 25. 68 and 34.65% over the control, respectively.
Similarly, using pollen suspension and removing 20 or 30% of the fruits gave the highest percentages of TSS and sugar, while control gave the lowest percentage. It can be concluded that pollination with pollen grains at 0.5 g added to 100 gm sugar/L water or removing 30% of setting fruit produced a good crop with high fruit quality.
Keywords: Pollination, Fruit thinning, Yield, Fruit quality, Date palm, New Valley.

Summary in Arabic