Physiological studies on rooting ability of offshoots of some date palm cultivars

Abstract EN

This study was conducted at the nursery of the Pomology Unit, Desert Research Center during the years of 2000 and 2001 on six date palm cultivars, i.e., Halawie, Bent Aisha, Orabi, Hayany, Zaghloul and Sammany.

Offshoot of each variety were separated on August 1st 2000.

The average weight of offshoots ranged from 10 to 15 kg.

They were planted in sand soil.

The obtained results can be summarized as follows: 1-Rooting percent decreased after 12 months compared with that after seven months from transplanting.

The lowest rooting percent was observed with the cultivars Sammany and Zaghloul (44.4 and 66.7%, respectively).

2-There were significant differences among the cultivars concerning number of leaves, average leaf length, number of roots and average root diameter / offshoot.

The Sammany cultivar showed the least values in all these traits except for rooting %, number of leaves, average leaf length and number of roots.

3-The contents of N, P, K, Fe and Mn in the apical bud tissue were the highest in the cultivar Zaghloul in both years of the study.

On the contrary, the cultivar Halawie showed the lowest contents of these mineral constituents.

In addition, moisture percent was significantly the lowest in both of Sammany and Orabi cultivars.

4-Concerning the content of gibberellic acid in tissue of the apical bud, the cultivar Zaghloul showed the highest value (25.48 mg / g), while Sammany showed the least one (11.68mg / g).

The content of indole acetic acid in the apical bud was the least in both of Sammany and Zaghloul cultivars (0.209 and 0.213 mg / g, respectively).

The content of abscisic acid in the apical bud was the highest (0.079 mg / g) in the Sammany cultivar.

5-It can be stated that the easiness or difficulty in rooting of offshoots is associated with their content of endogenous application exogenously to overcome the rooting difficulties of date palm cultivars offshoots.