Abstract
To improve fruit set, yield and fruit physicochemical characteristics of date palm cv. Khalas,
the effects of different pollination methods (pollen dusting, strands placement, pollen
suspension, and natural pollination) were investigated. Twelve date palm trees were
selected for the experiment, for which five spathes (spadix) from each palm were carefully
chosen. The experiment was laid out on Randomized Complete Block Design with three
replicates for each treatment. The results indicated significant differences among different
pollination methods. The date palm cv. Khalas pollinated with dusting method exhibited
significantly promising results regarding fruit set, parthenocarpic fruit, biser fruit, tamar
fruit, and fruit drop percentage, bunch weight, pulp weight, pulp, seed and pulp : seed ratio,
fruit fresh and dry weight, fruit length, width, and volume, seed weight and length, fruit
moisture content, total soluble solids, total and reducing sugars. Data regarding total number
of fruit nodes per bunch, seed width, and non-reducing sugar were not significantly affected
by any pollination methods. Pollination carried out by pollen suspension technique was
closely followed to pollen dusting method and a number of attributes were non-significant
between the two methods such as fruit set, parthenocarpic fruit, tamar fruit, and fruit drop
percentage, bunch and pulp weight, pulp, seed and pulp : seed ratio and fruit moisture
content. Strands placement technique was much better than the control one that showed
poor results regarding all attributes studied. The correlation between the parameters
indicated that fruit set percentage had a significant positive relationship with tamar fruit
percentage, bunch weight, total soluble solids, and total sugars. It is consequently concluded
that pollen dusting and pollen suspension techniques are the best ones to pollinate date palm
cv. Khalas. Moreover, date palm can not be left on natural pollination, which adversely
affects fruit yield and quality attributes.
Muhammad Munir, Mubarak Ali Al-Muiweed, Hesham Sayed Ghazzawy, Abdul Majeed Al-Bahigan, Sallam. (2020) A comparative study of pollination methods effect on the changes in fruit yield and quality of date palm cultivar Khalas, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume 8, Issue 2.
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