EFFECT OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF FRUIT THINNING ON ZAGHLOUL DATE PALM PRODUCTION AND FRUIT QUALITY | ||||
| Assiut Journal of Agricultural Sciences | ||||
| Article 8, Volume 39, Issue 1, March 2008, Page 97-106 PDF (266.15 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ajas.2008.269515 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| Moamen M. Al-Wasfy; Abdel-Aziz S. El-Khawaga | ||||
| Fac. of Agric., South Valley Univ., Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The effect of bunch and fruit thinning on yield and fruit quality of Zaghloul date palm grown in Experimental Orchard of Qena, Agriculture Faculty, South Valley University was studied during two successive seasons, 2006 and 2007. Fruit thinning was carried out by removing 20 or 30% of the bunch number/palm as well as cutting back or removing 20 or 30% of the spikelets of each bunch. Results showed that thinning 30% of fruit by cutting back strand tips significantly decreased bunch weight and yield/palm, whereas, other fruit thinning treatments insignificantly decreased the bunch weight and yield/palm compared with unthinned ones. On the other hand, thinning by removing 20 or 30% of bunch number per palm significantly increased the bunch weight but decreased yield/palm than unthinned ones. A remarkable promotion on fruit quality was observed due to carrying out the studied thinning treatments than unthinning. Either bunch or fruit thinning significantly increased fruit weight, fruit dimensions, flesh percentage and pulp thickness as compared to control. Also, fruit thinning positively enhanced total soluble solids and sugar contents, where total acidity percentage was significantly decreased as compared to unthinning ones. Fruit thinning by either cutting back 30% of strand tips or removing 30% of total strands from the center of bunch were the best treatments. It could be suggested that, thinning 20 to 30 of strands either by cutting back or removing gave a reasonable yield and best fruit quality of Zaghloul date palm | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Fruit thinning; Date palm; Fruit quality; Yield | ||||
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