EFFECT OF BUNCH REMOVAL AND FRUIT THINNING ON SHRIVELING OF MATURE DATES IN ‘GHAR’ CULTIVAR

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is the most important crop in Saudi Arabia which accounts for nearly 15% of the global production of dates.
Shriveling of dates as characterized by drying, wrinkling and underdevelopment of mature (tamar) dates causes substantial reduction in yield.
Trials were carried out during 2007 and 2008 to assess the effect of bunch removal (main treatment) and fruit thinning (sub treatment) on shriveling of matures dates in ‘Ghar’, a popular date palm cultivar in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Data on the number of shriveled fruits per palm were subjected to analysis of variance using the two-factor factorial experimental design.
Results revealed significant differences among treatments.
With regard to the main treatment of bunch removal the lowest number of shriveled dates (153) was recorded when 33.00% of the bunches were removed, while for the sub-treatment of fruit thinning the least shriveling (148) was recorded with 25% strand thinning.
With regard to the overall treatment mean (interaction), 33.00% bunch removal coupled with 25% strand thinning recorded the lowest number of shriveled dates of 124 which was statistically at par with 25% bunch removal coupled with 25% strand cutting.

IV International Date Palm Conference

Z.S. Al Darwish, A. Ben Abdallah

date palm, bunch removal, fruit thinning, shriveling of dates

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.882.88