YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF 'SAYER' DATE PALM AS AFFECTED BY LEVELS AND METHODS OF IRON FERTILIZATION

Date palm is one of the most important and strategic agricultural crops. Date palm is cultivated in calcareous soils of Iran. Plants grown on calcareous soils sometimes suffer from an iron deficiency. It has been suggested that inorganic iron compounds, iron chelates, organic compounds, industrial by-products and wastes, acidifying soil amendments and injection, could affect correction. Due to the importance of date palm and so the importance of iron in date palm nutrition this research was conducted in order to study the effects of iron fertilization on yield and yield components of date palm ‘Sayer’, on 54 trees in the Ahwaz research station of Khoozestan Province on eight-year-old date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) in Iran during 2002-2006. Research treatments consisted of: 1) Control treatment, 2) Soil surface application of Fe in two levels, 3) Application of Fe as localized placement method in two levels, 4) Fe injection into the trunk of tree in four levels. The experiment was performed as a randomized complete blocks design with nine treatments and three replications. Agro-technical practices were done according to the custom of the region. Production was harvested and weighted each year at the end of September. Yield, yield components, chemical and physical analyses of leaves and fruits were also done. Data were analyzed statistically and means were compared with Duncan’s multiple range tests using MSTATC software. Results showed that in most cases, injection of 25 g FeSO₄ tree^-1 into the trunk showed the best results. Other injection treatments were placed in second class.