Effect of Boron Spray and Pollination Methods on “Zahdi” Date Palm Yield and Fruits Quality

Abstract

This experiment was conducted in private orchard in Al-Hashemiyyah district in Babylon Governorate in 2020 season to study the effect of boron spraying and pollination methods on fruit quality characteristics and date palm yield on 25 years old of “Zahdi” cultivar. 42 homogeneous palm trees were selected, and they were implemented as a factor experiment (2×7). The treatments were distributed randomly according to a randomized complete design RCBD with three replications. One date palm was considered an experimental unit. The experiment included a study of two factors; the first is spraying with boron at two levels (B1, which is spraying boron at a concentration of 150 mg.L-1 in floral stage, and B0 without spraying). The second factor included pollination methods (manual pollination method, which is control (D1), mechanical dry pollination with pollen with a concentration of 1g:5g of filler ( D2), and dry mechanical pollination with pollen at a concentration of 1g:7g of the filler (D3), mechanical pollination with pollen grains at a concentration of 1 g.L-1 : 9 g of the filler (D4), mechanical pollination with pollen grains at a concentration of 2 g.L-1 of water (S1), and mechanical pollination with pollen grains at a concentration of 4 g.L-1(S2), A liquid with pollen with a concentration of 6 g.L-1 (S3). wheat flour was used as a filler, and 5 g of starch was used as an aid for every liter of water.The results showed that, boron spray did not have significant effects on the studied characteristics in the experiment.Results also showed that the liquid mechanical pollination method (S2), affected the quality characteristics of the fruits, gave the highest fruit weight of 8.60 g, and also highest fruit volume of 9.71 cm3. Also, Results showed that the dry mechanical pollination method (D3) affected the yield as it gave highest bunch weight of 7.21 kg, and also gave highest yield per palm of 79.35 kg.