Effect of pollen source on fruit set, yield, and physical properties of tissue culture-derived and offshoot-derived date palm, cv. ‘Barhi’ and ̒ Piarom’

The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of pollen source, including genotypes 7001 (control), 7005, 7013, 7030, and tissue culture-derived Boyer 11, on two maternal plant sources, including ‘Barhi’ and ‘Piarom’ (tissue culture-derived and offshoot-derived). The quantitative properties of fruits were evaluated during two years (2018-2019). A population of thirty ten-years-old trees were selected from each cultivar. Fruit physical properties were measured, including fruit length and diameter, the length-to-diameter ratio of the fruit, fruit volume, seed length and diameter, seed weight, and yield. The results showed that the highest percentage of natural fruit set was related to offshoot-derived trees cv. ‘Barhiʼ with pollen from genotypes 7030 and 7013. The lowest was found in tissue culture-derived trees cv. ‘Piaromʼ with pollen from genotype 7001 (control). In general, cultivation of offshoot-derived ‘Barhi’ and ‘Piarom’ cultivars is preferable to their tissue culture-derived trees, since they make better quantitative and qualitative properties. Furthermore, genotypes 7013 and 7030 were selected as the most suitable pollinizers because of increasing the percentage of fruit set, reducing parthenocarpic fruit, and improving the quantitative and qualitative properties of fruits in tissue culture-derived and offshoot-derived date palm cultivars (‘Barhi’ and ‘Piarom’).

Effect of pollen source on fruit set, yield, and physical properties of tissue culture-derived and offshoot-derived date palm, cv. ‘Barhi’ and ̒ Piarom’ Keywords:

abnormality , Date palm , Offshoot , pollen effects , Quantity of fruit , Tissue culture