Response of bent Aisha and Sewy date palm to some fruit thinning treatments

Abstract EN

Response of yield and fruit quality of sewy and bent Aisha date palms to bunches and strands thinning were studied in 2015 and 2016 seasons.

bunches thinning was carried out by adjusting the number of bunches per palm tree to 7, 8 and 10 bunches, where the control was the latter one.

the ten bunches/palm, however, were thinned by removing 20 or 30% of strand/bunch as well as 20, 30 or 40% of fruit numbers/strand.

the obtained results showed that reducing bunch numbers/palm to either 7 or 8 bunches significantly increased the bunch weight in alliance with 10 bunches/palm.

on the other hand, such reducing significantly decreased the yield/palm.

in addition, reducing strand number/bunch to either 70 or 80% of strands/bunch as well as 70 or 60% fruits/strand significantly decreased the bunch weight and yield of sewy and bent Aisha palms, respectively comparing to the unthinned ones.

a remarkable promotion on fruit quality was observed due to performing fruit thinning in alliance to unthinning.

thinning either bunches or strands as well as fruits significantly increased the fruit weight, size and flesh percentage comparing to the unthinning.

fruit thinning also significantly improved the fruit chemical properties in terms of increasing the total soluble solids and sugar contents compared to the unthinning treatment.

it can be concluded that thinning by removing 20-30% of strands/bunch as well as 20-30 of fruits number/strand achieved on good fruit quality of sewy and bent Aisha date palms with a relation suitable yield/palm.