DATE PALM (PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.) FRUIT GROWTH PATTERN

Abstract

Pollinated and un-pollinated inflorescences of date palm cvs. Sayer and Barhee have been studied. The pollinated flowers produced normal seed-bearing fruits, but unpollinated flowers produced two kind of seedless fruits: i) parthenocarpic single and ii) parthenocarpic triplets. In both cultivars the seed-bearing fruits growth curve was single sigmoid and till common harvesting time they passed all the date fruit growth stages (hababouk, kimri, khalal, rutab and tamar stages) and reached whole of their size. But seedless fruits continued to grow till harvesting time, and they showed the same growth pattern but at a different rate. The seedless fruits never reached the rutab and tamar stages and stayed smaller than seed-bearing fruits. Data of studying the stained seed-bearing fruits by ink showed that the fruit growth regions are close to the fruit calyx.