COMPARATIVE STUDY ON PRODUCTIVITY OF SOME ARABIAN AND LOCAL DATE PALM CULTIVARS GROWN IN THE DESERT REGION AT GIZA GOVERNORATE

Abstract

Eight Arabian date palm cultivars i.e. Madjool (Majhool), Bahree, Nabtet-Seif, Halawy, Braym,Khalas, succary and Lolo in comparison with the commercial cv. Hayany (locally grown date palm) in the desert region at Giza Governorate.Fruit set percentage, date of harvest, average number of bunches/palm, bunch weight, yield per palm as well as physical and chemical properties of fruitsand Numerical evaluation were recordedand calculatedfor some tested soft date palm cultivars. Significant differences were observed for fruit set percentage of some tested date palm cvs. Highest fruit set percentages were obtained from Madjool (95.40 – 97.50%), and Hayany (81.00 & 80.00) in comparison with other tested cvs. as well as Nabtet-Seif which produced the lowest fruit set percentage (55 – 58.5%).Braym,Barhee and Halawy were earlyin harvest by the first half of Aug., Madjool, Hayany and Khalas as midseason (September), while Nabtet-Seif, Succary and Lolo are late in harvest (October). Barhee, Nabtet-Seif, Halawy, Braym, Khalas, Succary, Lolo and Hayanyfruits are eatable at Khalal and rutab stage, while Madjool was not eatable atkhalal stage increase tannins and acid content in the khalal fruits, Madjool was suitable for raw eating at rutaband tamer stage.Among the physical fruit characteristics are, fruit weight (18.00 &18.74 gm), fruit length (4.00 & 4.00 cm) and seed weight (1.64&1.59gm) were the highest in theHayany in tested seasons.Fruitflesh percentage was the highest with Barhee and lowest with Hayany. As for chemical fruit characteristics, total soluble solids and total sugars contents recorded the highestin the Halawy and Succary. Fruits of Halawy and Barhee had lower tannins and acidity percentage, while it reached the highest content in Hayany.The numerical evaluation (total unit 100) of some tested soft date palm showed that, they were ranked as follows:Barhee (89.77unit), Madjool (84.25 unit), Hayany(80.96 unit), Succary (77.52 unit), Halawy (75.56 unit), Khalas (71.28 unit),Nabtet-Seif (69.82unit), Lolo (75.23 unit) and Braym (65.95 unit) in average both tested seasons. In addition, total score of fruit quality (70 unit)of tested soft date palm was ranked as follows:Madjool (63.25 unit), Barhee (59.47unit), Succary (58.28unit), Lolo (56.28unit), Hayany (55.18 unit), Halawy (54.65 unit ), Khalas (54.23unit), Nabtet-Seif (50.79 unit) and Barym (48.09 unit) inaverage both tested seasons. Generally, the obtained herein results proved that Madjool, BarheeandHayany showed better results and could be recommended to be cultivated in the desert region at Giza Governorate, due to their high yield and fruits physiochemical characteristicsthan the other tested soft date palm cultivars.Although the yield of date palm cvs., Succary and Lolo grown in desert region Giza Governorate was relatively low in comparing with Hayany cv. (local date palm) which showed hight physiochemical characteristics for its fruits. On the contrary, Nabtet-Seif and Braym showed less yield and poor fruit quality than the standard studied cv. Hayany.