IMPROVEMENTS OF YIELD AND FRUIT QUALITY OF ZAGHLOOL DATE PALM BY USING THE DIFFERENT THINNING TREATMENTS

Different hand thinning treatments were conducted on Zaghloul date palm cultivar to study their effects on bunch yield and fruit quality. Seven thinning treatments; (1) control (no thinning), (2) Thinning by removing 25% the bunches number/ palm in Hababouk stage, (3) Thinning by removing 25% the strands number/ palm in Hababouk stage (4) Thinning by removing 25% of strands length per bunch in Hababouk stage, (5) Thinning by removing 25% the bunches number/ palm in Kemri stage, (6) Thinning by removing 25 the strands number/ palm in kemri stage, (7) Thinning by removing 25% of strands length per bunch in kemri stage, at a private farm under the conditions of the Ismailia Governorate, Egypt. Fruit thinning significantly decreased yield per palm. Fruit thinning by treatments (2,5) significantly increased the bunch/weight, however the other thinning treatments decreased the bunch weight. Fruit thinning significantly increased the average fruit weight, fruit size, flesh weight, flesh thick, fruit dimensions, seed weight and color index as compared to the control in both seasons. Fruit thinning had significant effect on the total soluble solids, fruit acidity, vitamin C, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, total sugars and total soluble tannins in both seasons. Thinning by removing 25% of strands length bunch in Hababouk stage significantly improved fruit quality compared with the other treatments. Conclusively, it is concerning mentioned that the thinning treatments occurred in Hababouk stage gave good results than in kemri stage.