FRUIT CHARACTERIZATION OF PRESENT CULTIVARS AND SOME NEWLY-FOUND GENOTYPES OF DATE PALM IN HORMOZGAN PROVINCE OF IRAN

So far, more than 400 date cultivars have been recognized in Iran. When introduced to different regions of Iran, these cultivars significantly produced different quality from those in the area of origin. Ongoing studies deal with comprehensive characterization of these cultivars and identifying more cultivars. The present study was carried out to identify more new genotypes for identity certification and to select the cultivars which best suit the packaging and processing industries. The experiment was conducted with more than 100 cultivars from different regions using a sample of 200 fruits for each cultivar. Of these groups, the number of dominant cultivars throughout the regions of Siahoo, Minab, Rudan, Hadji-Abad, Banda-e-Lengeh, Bastak, Parsian, and Fin-o-Rezvan were 17, 12, 26, 20, 14, 23, 21 and 39, respectively. Fruits were tested for some quality criteria using both chemical and physical analyses. Chemical characteristics were pH, acidity, TSS, reducing sugars, total sugar, moisture content percentage and dry matter percentage. Physical characteristics were fruit length, diameter and weight; seed length, diameter and weight; pulp weight; pulp/seed ratio. The most important commercial cultivars for packaging found to be the soft-fruit cultivars ‘Khunazi’, ‘Mordaseng’, ‘Khasab’, ‘Khallas’, ‘Barhee’, ‘Negar’, ‘Hallawi’, ‘Lasht’, ‘Ghorbani’, ‘Mozafati’, ‘Shahani’, ‘Nohdanehgazi’, ‘Khasouei’, ‘Istaemran’, ‘Mosalli’, ‘Kabkab’, ‘Breim’, ‘Zamardan’, ‘Kariteh’ and ‘Nabati’ and 5 semi-dry cultivars ‘Piyarom’, ‘Dayri’, ‘Medjool’, ‘Zahidi’ and ‘Thoory’. The rest of the cultivars were found suitable for the processing industry. The cultivars ‘Nohdaneh Gazi’ with golden yellow color, long fruits with least fiber and ‘Hassan Mahdi’ a shiny soft date, resistant to fermentation with dark brown color, and least fiber and ‘Moghbali Modadal’ a soft date with soft tissue and light brown color were added as new genotypes to the Iranian date germplasm.