Response of Male Pollinizers in Fruit Set, Yield and Quality of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Cv. Dhakki
Response of Male Pollinizers in Fruit Set, Yield and Quality of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Cv. Dhakki
Muhammad Aslam Shahid, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Niamatullah
ABSTRACT
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop of Pakistan, after citrus and mangos. Artificial pollination is a one of most important cultural practice for improving yield of Date palm due to diocious nature of palm tree. Pollen sources play important role in fruit setting .The growers pollinate the date by using low potency pollen source and get low yield. Present studies were conducted with the aim to explore best pollen sources for maximum fruit set and yield. In this respect, an experiment was conducted during 2012 and 2013 to evaluate the male spath characteristics and to observe the effect of pollen sources on fruit set, yield and physico-chemical characteristics of Dhakki date palm. Data were recorded for spath length, width, number of strands/spath, number of flower per strands, number of spath per tree, weight of pollen grain/spath, weight of pollen grain/tree, pollen viability, fruit set, yield and physico-chemical characteristics. The results indicated that males were significantly differed from one another in all these characters during both years of study. Maximum spath length (107.21, 107.81cm), weight of pollen grain (150.07, 147.57g)/ tree and number of spath/tree (18.52, 19.24) were recorded in M6, whereas, maximum spath width (15.29, 16.58cm) was observed in M5. The highest number of strand/spath (245.21, 240.53), number of flower/ strand (84.29, 86.80) and weight of pollen grain (12.13, 11.18g) /spath were observed in M3. Maximum pollen viability (93.78, 93.34%) was noticed in M2. As far as the effects of pollen sources are concerned, the maximum fruit set (90.17, 92.43%), fruit length (4.28, 4.27 cm), fruit width (2.28, 2.30 cm) fruit weight (22.33, 22.79g), fruit yield (109.48, 104.83 kg/tree), moisture % (68.17, 68.20) were recorded when pollinated with M2. Highest TSS % (35.81, 36.28) reducing sugars % (5.15, 5.11), non reducing sugars % (13.82, 13.44) and total sugars % (18.97, 18.55) were recorded in M6 during both years of investigation. These results suggest that for maximum fruit set, yield and quality, the Dhakki date should be pollinated with pollens of M2 and M6.
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