STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF STORAGE METHODS AND AMOUNT OF POLLEN ON 'ZAHIDI' DATE PALMS FRUIT SETTING

Bushehr province with 34000 ha of date plantation owns the third area rate of dates production in Iran. ‘Zahidi’ as a dry cultivar with high handling and storage capacity is the most important date production in this province after ‘Kabkab’ cultivar. Unfortunately, fruit drop in this cultivar is one of the main problems. The amount of pollen usage and pollen viability are effective factors on pollination. An experiment was done to study the effects of storage methods (fresh pollen, stored pollen at room temperature and stored pollen in refrigerator) and amount of applied pollen (0, 0.5, 1 and 2 cm³) on fruit set and fruit drop of ‘Zahidi’ with twelve treatments and four replications in Factorial Randomized Complete Blocks Design. Results showed that the main effect of pollen storage methods was significant on fruit drop, fruit weight, seed weight, length and diameter, bunch weight, TSS, fruit set, ripening time and pH, but showed no effect on length and diameter of fruits. Amount of pollen had no significant effects on any of the mentioned properties. Interaction between storage methods and amount of pollen had significant effect only on fruit drop and pH. Also, it was shown that pollen viability was significantly affected by pollen storage methods at 1% level.