Impact of Pollen Grain Sources on Productivity and Fruit Characteristics of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. Barhi

Abstract

The present study was conducted during two successive seasons of 2018 and 2019 at Faqus city, El-Sharkia governorate, Egypt. To study the effect of different pollen grain sources (locations) collected from full development males grown in five different governorates locations (El-Sharkia, Al-Qassaseen, Aswan, Giza and New Valley) on fruit yield and quality of Barhi date palm. Female Barhi date palms healthy, nearly homogenous in growth as well as fruiting ability were selected. The selected Barhi palms were subjected to all horticultural practices applied to the date palms in this region except those ones under study. Pollen grain samples were collected at flowering time (at early of March) from the five locations and prepared for pollination. Pollination was done one time in the two seasons of study. The female inflorescences spadix (bunches) were covered by paper bags before pollination process and recovered after pollination to protect the inflorescence from any unwanted pollen and avoid the mixing between different pollen as well as they remained sources and kept covered until fruit set was insured. The prepared pollens of each source were used for pollinating 15 female date palms Barhi cv In five treatments and three replications. by using hand pollination (manual method) during March and April in both seasons of study to detect the effect of pollen source on productivity and fruit quality. The most important results can be summarized as follows: Giza and New Valley location surpassed significantly other males as it gave the highest fruit set %. In addition, El-Sharkia and New Valley location resulted greatest values of pollen grains viability. Moreover, The highest fruit weight and productivity of female Barhi date palm was recorded when using pollen grains from Aswan location. The highest values of fruit quality were statistically in concomitant to Giza and New Valley location pollen sources.