Effect of chemical thinning on fruit growth and fruit quality of ‘Majhoul’ date palm at the end of the ‘Khalal’ stage
1 Former Professor at Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, Horticultural Complex of Agadir, BP 121, Ait Melloul 15086, Morocco.
2 Agricultural engineer, Department of Agriculture, Draa Tafilalet agricultural area, Goulmima 52250, Errachidia, Morocco.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, 2024, 07(01), 023–033.
Article DOI: 10.53346/wjapls.2024.7.1.0036
Publication history:
Received on 22 July 2024; revised on 29 August 2024; accepted on 31 August 2024
Abstract:
The aim of this research work was to study the effect of chemical thinning using NAA (Naphthalene acetic acid) and the manual thinning used by the farmer on the fruit growth and fruit quality of ‘Majhoul’ date palm at the end of the ‘khalal’ stage (color stage and fruit physiologically mature). Trials were carried out on an adult plantation in the Tinejdad region, Tafilalet area. Observations focused on monitoring the fruit growth of different flowering phases and fruit quality at the end of the ‘khalal’ stage. Obtained results showed that the evolution of the fruit size parameters is similar for all flowering phases and all thinning treatments and at the end of the ‘khalal’ stage there is no significant difference (p ˃ 0.05) between flowering phases and between thinning treatments for these parameters. At the end of the ‘khalal’ stage, fruit length is between 4.8 and 4.9 cm and fruit mass is between 25.0 and 25.5 g. The content of sugar in the fruit is higher at the manual thinning treatment than at the NAA treatments, whereas the flowering phases have no effect on this parameter. The pH of the fruit juice is relatively similar for all thinning treatments and all flowering phases.
Keywords:
Morocco; Tafilalet area; Majhoul date palm; NAA; flowering phase; fruit growth; Fruit quality
Full text article in PDF:
Copyright information:
Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0