Effect of Pollination Technique on Agronomic and Physicochemical Characteristics of Date Palm Fruits (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. ‘Deglet Nour ’

Abstract

In Tunisian oases, pollination remains a traditional process and the male’ spikelets are manually inserted into female inflorescences. The drawback of this ancestral practice forced us to look for a new alternative pollination technique for improving date palm productivity. The present investigation aimed to compare agronomic and biochemical characteristics of ‘Deglet Nour’ variety following three pollination techniques: the handmade traditional technique, the dusting (spraying pollen grains by powder) and the water suspension technique. The results affirmed that the dusting technique was the most efficient technique followed by the handmade pollination. Sprinkling showed the highest fruit set rate (82.21%), retention rate (68.34%) and yield per bunch (5.5 kg) with the lowest number of partenocarpic fruits (less than 2%). Besides, data revealed that pollination techniques were not involved in physicochemical and pomological characteristics during the different stages of date maturation. However, other studies can be carried out to explore these different pollination techniques on other varieties growing in different oasis systems.