To determine the proper planting dates for true potato seed (TPS) nursery, the present study was conducted at Agriculture Research Institute, Tandojam, Pakistan located at 25.24, 46.00,'N and 68.32, 12.00 ' E during 2009 and 2010. Comparison of three planting dates i.e. October 15, October 30 and November 15, were made. The results obtained from m-2 area showed maximum germination (84.95%), plant height (46.94 cm) average number of micro (1-9 mm) tubers (196.1), small(10-19 mm) tubers (42.15), medium(20-39 mm) tubers (26.56), large(>40 mm) tubers (7.57), weight of micro tubers (1302 g), small tubers (480.3 g), medium tubers (340 g) and large tubers (468.5 g) were observed when TPS-9804 was planted on 30 th October. The overall results for tuber yield showed that TPS-9804 genotype planted on 30 th October produced maximum tuber yield (29.46 t ha 1) as compared to rest of genotypes; hence, TPS-9804 genotype is recommended for raising of TPS nursery with 30 th October of planting date.
To determine the suitable substrate, five growth substrates viz. Soil + Sand, Soil + FYM, Soil + Sand + FYM, Soil + PM (Poultry manure) and Soil + Sand + PM were used to grow the three true potato seed (TPS) genotypes viz. TPS-9802, TPS-9804 and TPS-9805. Results of the interactive effect of genotypes x substrates on plant and tuber traits concluded that maximum germination (90.5 %), plant height (46.3 cm), micro tubers (212.7), small tubers (45.7), medium tubers (28.2), large tubers (10.2) and total tubers (296.8), maximum weight of micro (1491 g), small tubers (757.6 g), medium tubers (828.9 g), large tubers (483.7 g) and total tuber weight (3561) per unit area (1m-2) and total tuber yield (35.6 t ha-1) were found in TPS-9804 grown in the substrate of soil+sand+FYM. However TPS-9805 yielded (32.5 t ha-1) and ranked 2 nd with same substrate. Hence, it is recommended for raising TPS nursery.
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is the foremost fruit plant of Sindh, Pakistan. The plant is dioecious and requires artificial pollination.The mechanical devices are also introduced to save overall production cost and improved fruit yield. Therefore this study tested the effectiveness of both, manual and mechanical, pollination methods in selected date palm cultivars. In this regard, six date palm cultivars namely Aseel, Dhakki, Muzawati, Hussaini, Karbalain and Shakri were selected for both successive seasons 2017 and 2018 at Date Palm Research Station, Kotdiji, Khairpur (Mir's) Sindh, Pakistan. The selected date palm cultivars pollinated by manual and mechanical pollination methods. The study identified significant variations in fruit characters among the six cultivars. The cultivars Dhakki and Shakri produced relatively larger fruits compared to the rest of cultivars. These cultivars produced larger fruit pulp with average length 4.1 cm and diameter 2.3 cm when pollinated by manual method. Whereas, Flesh weight, seed weight, bunch weight and total yield of plants were not significantly different in manually and mechanically pollinated plants. Further, the experiments suggested optimizing the mechanical pollination method for better fruit quality and yield, using a varied concentration of pollen powder and frequency of pollination.
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