PJB-2018-1046
PRODUCTION AND QUALITY OF DATE FRUIT IN RESPONSE TO POLLINATION METHODS
Muhammad Mahmood-ur-Rahman Jamro
Abstract
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a foremost fruit crop of Sindh, Pakistan. Due to dioecious nature of date palm, artificial pollination is a critical cultural practice that affects fruit development, quality and yield. In this regard, six date palm cultivars namely Aseel, Dhakki, Muzawati, Hussaini, Karbalain and Shakri were selected for both successive seasons 2015-16, 2016-17 at Date Palm Research Station, Kot Diji, Khairpur (Mir’s), Sindh, Pakistan. The selected date palm cultivars were pollinated by manual and mechanical pollination methods. The obtained results revealed that there was no significant effect of pollination methods on the number of bunches and weight of single bunch per plant. However the maximum number (16.33) of bunches per plant was recorded by Karbalain cultivar. The highest weight of single bunch (11.00 kg) was noted by Dhakki and Shakri cultivars. In both pollination methods (manual and mechanical) cultivar Dhakki was recorded with highest fruit yield (140.00 and 138.33 kg) per plant and maximum flesh weight (13.03 and 12.4 g) was also recorded with Dhakki cultivar. The higher fruit length (5.33) and fruit diameter (2.80 cm) was observed by Dhakki cultivar and highest seed weight (1.20 g) was recorded by Shakri cultivar under manual method of pollination. The maximum weight of single fruit (14.06 g) was recorded in Dhakki cultivar under mechanical method. Hence these results suggested that both methods could be considered for pollination in date palm cultivars for higher yield and quality of dates.
To Cite this article:
Download
