Physiological study on the seasonal production of new leaves and inflorescences of some date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars,under Assiut conditions,UAR [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

The study was carried out for three seasons (2001 to 2003) on ZaghlouL ,Haiany, Sewy and Amry date palm cultivars, grown at the Experimental Orchard, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt. The main objective of this experiment is to find out additional information concerning the seasonal trend of producing new leaves and annual production of inflorescences.The results of this investigation could be summarized as follows: Zaghloul,Haiany, Sewy and Amry date palms produced 22.23, 22.53,23.60 and 20.80 leaves/year,respectively. The higher number ofnew leaves was produced during March to August, whereas. leaves produced during September to February period recorded the least number. The number of annually developed bunches varied according to the cultivars and ranged from (7.40 to 8.20). (7.80 to 10.40), (10.20 to 11.40) and (7.40 to 9.80 bunch/palm/year) for Zaghloul, Haiany, Sewy and Amry cultivars respectively. The maximum number of these inflorescences was bursted from axils of 10 and 12 months old leaves. The percentage of contribution of 10 months old leaves was higher than 1:1at of the 12 months old of Sewy date palm. On lhe contrary, 12 months old leaves of Zaghloul, Haiany and Amry had higher contribution compared to 10 months old leaves. Sewy and Zaghloul palms gave their annual yield in regular pattern as compared with Haiany and Arnry palms, which showed irregular cropping. From the results of the present study. it is clear that during April to July there was excessive production of new leaves which subtended by intlorescences in the following season.Subsequently, it is important to carry out the agricultural practices during this period. In addition, removing shall spathes in the axils of either 8 or 14 months old leaves of the studied cultivars is recommended to overcome irregular bearing of the date palm

Summary in Arabic.

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