Improving of Fruit Quality and Yield of Barhi Date Palm Cultivar (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by Thinning Practices

Abstract

An experiment of Barhi date palm cultivar was conducted during two successive seasons, 2016, and 2017, to compare between the different thinning of strands, 1/3 shortening of the total strands from the tips, 1/3 removal of the central strands, 1/3 shortening plus 1/3 removal of central strands . All the thinning treatments improved the fruit quality with respect to fresh fruit weight, fruit flesh weight, reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar contents as compared to the control treatment. Among the various thinning treatments, (combination of 1/3 shortening and 1/3 removal of central strands) produced the best fruit weight, flesh percentage, reducing and non-reducing sugars contents of date fruit. Whereas the total date palm yield and bunch weight were significantly reduced by the same treatment (combination of the shortening and central removal of strands). However, the date fruit quality was identical for (1/3 shortening of total strands from terminal tips) and (1/3 removal of the central strands) (i.e., 1/3 removal of central strands and 1/3 shortening of total strands) treatments. There was no significant difference of date palm yield and bunch weight obtained in control treatment than that of strands removing and shortening treatments