Fruits Variability of Some Nigerian Date-Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Accessions as Revealed by Yield Parameters

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the fruit physical traits of some date palm accessions conserved in the experimental gene pool of NIFOR Date palm research substation in dutse, Nigeria. A survey and exploration were undertaken to collect the fruits from the population of the Female date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) trees germplasm across the gene pools. The results showed that the accessions R5P24 and R9P2 had the highest number of fruit length (4.73cm) and (4.87 cm). The accession R7P1 recorded the highest and significantly superior values (11.85 g) in fruit weight, while accession R24P9 recorded the lowest fruit diameter. The accessions R6P20, R14P21, and R5P20 showed no significant differences. Significant differences were recorded among the studied accessions in seed weight, seed length and seed diameter respectively.