COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOME SEMI-DRY ARABIAN DATE PALM CULTIVARS GROWN IN MOUNOFIA GOVERNORATE

Abstract

This study was carried out through 2014 and 2015 to study the performance of four Arabian semi-dry date cultivars produced through tissue culture namely: Zahdi, Sakai, Medjool, and Khalas” grown in El-Khatatba region, Mounofia governorate, Egypt in comparison with the commercial semi-dry Sewy (as a local cultivar). The study involved the flowed assessed parameters, dates of the first and last spathe emergence and bursting, fruit set and fruit retention %, date of harvest, number of bunches/palm and average yield per palm, as well as physical and chemical properties of fruits. Emergence and bursting of spathe of Medjool and Khalasoccurred early, followed by “Sewy and “Zahdi while Sakaicv. came last. Harvesting of all tested cultivars was done on the first week of October. Regarding the yield, highest yield was obtained fromMadjool palms in comparison with other tested cvs. followed by “Sewy and “Zahdi while it was the lowest with Sakai and Khalas. Also, Sewy andMadjool palms produced the highest number of bunches /palm while the lowest number of bunches /palm was recorded by Sakai. With regard to fruit set and fruit retention % Medjool attained the highest percentage of fruit set and fruit retention% while “Khalas was the lowest cultivar in this respect. Concerning physical properties, data proved the superiority of Medjoolfruits in weight, dimensions and flesh/fruit weight% meanwhileSakai fruits were the opposite. As for chemical properties, moisture content in fruits was the highest in “Sakai fruits and lowest in Khalas. Data proved the superiority of Sakai and Madjool in T.S.S% and total sugars content. Results showed also that most of these sugars were reducing sugars. Regarding tannins content, the differences between tested cultivars did not reach the level of significance. General evaluation revealed that Madjoolcv. proved to be the superior in yield and fruit quality among all the studied cvs., followed by Sewy cultivar which ranked the second in both total score units of yield and fruit quality, while Khalas and Sakaicvs.had the lowest score in general evaluation due to receiving the lowest score units specified for yield. However, fruit quality of these cvs.was lower than of the standard cultivar (Sewy). In addition, seemed to be of great yield but fruit quality was less than that of “Sewycv. Thus, one can conclude thatMedjool and Sewy” cvs. proved to be the superior cvs. in yield and fruit quality. However Zahdi seemed to be of great yield but fruit quality was lower than the standard Sewy. On the other hand,Sakai cv. showed lower palm yield but fruit quality was reasonable for consumer, but, it was generally lower than of Sewy cultivar.