The Effect of Pollens of Five Different Male-palm Trees on the Physical Characteristics of Jiroft Mazafati Date C.V.

Abstract

The type of pollens of the date palm trees could affect on the outward and physical characteristics of date fruits, so far to determine its qualitative and quantitative aspects (15). Therefore careful selection of proper pollen for pollination of the date palms is considered of high importance. This research work was conducted to select the best pollinizers and to study the effects of pollens of five varieties of male trees, from Shahdad area, on the outward and physical characteristics of `Jiroft Mazafati'. For analyzing the results of this experiment, a completely randomized block statistical project was implemented for a period of 2 years from 1991 to 1993. The site of this experiment was in Jiroft area in Kerman Province. In this experiment, after pollination samples of fruit were collected during unripe (Kharak), ripe, and dry fruit stages and required information were recorded. Fruit length and diameter, seed length and diameter, weight of fruit, weight of seed, pulp weight, ration of fruit pulp to seed, ratio of fruit length to diameter, volume of fruit, weight of one full cluster of fruits, and finally the time of ripening were measured. Statistical calculations, analysis of compound variations and evaluation of treatments by Duncan's test indicate that different treatments of pollens will have no effect from statistical point of view on the ratio of fruit pulp to seed and the ratio of fruit length to diameter, and there are no significant differences. But there are significant effects on the other outward and physical characteristics of the fruit, and the differences from statistical point of view are considerable. The type of pollens are effective on the ripening time of the fruit and this difference ranges from 15 to 25 days for different treatments, which is important from early ripening point of view of the product.