EFFECT OF POLLEN GRAINS SUSPENSIONS SPRAYING ON YIELD AND FRUIT QUALITY OF 'SAIDY' DATE PALM

The effect of spraying pollen grains suspensions as a pollination method of ‘Saidy’ date palms which combines both mechanical pollination and fruit thinning was studied during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons. Pollination was achieved by spraying the pollen grain suspensions at 0.62, 1.25, 2.50, 5.00, 10.00 and 20 g pollen plus 1 g ascorbic acid/L.
The obtained results indicated that there is a significant reduction on fruit set and bunch weight as the pollen grains suspension concentration is reduced. This reduction occurs gradually with decreasing the pollen grains suspension concentration from 20-0.62 g/L. On the other hand, an improvement in fruit quality was observed with the reduction of the pollen grains suspension concentration used. Such improvement occurs with decreasing the used pollen grains suspension concentration from 20-0.62 g + 1 g ascorbic acid/L.
It could be concluded that using a suspension containing 2.5-5.0 g of pollen grains and 1 g ascorbic acid/L water would lead to a considerable yield with good fruit quality, in addition to the improvement of the efficiency of the pollination process.