Study on the evolution of the fruit morphological and physico-chemical parameters of ‘Majhoul’ date palm during fruit growth

Date palm is an economically important species in the Middle East and North Africa. In Morocco, date palm is the main crop in the southeastern region, mainly in Draa-Tafilalet area. The ‘Majhoul’ is ranked among the worldwide best quality dates due to its large size and good texture. This work aimed to study the effect of three phases of flowering (early flowering, seasonal and late) on fruit quality of ‘Majhoul’ during its development. Experiments were carried out on an adult plantation in a modern palm grove in Tafilalet. Obtained results showed that, except for the chemical parameters of the fruit, there is a significant difference (p ≤ 0.01) between the three flowering phases for the morphological parameters studied (fruit mass, size, and dimensions) during all the fruit development stages. The early flowering phase yielded fruits with higher parameters than the other flowering phases. The mean fruit size (volume) for all the fruit development stages was 22 cm3 for the early flowering phase, whereas it was only 12.86 and 10 cm3, respectively, for the seasonal and late flowering phases. The final fruit size was 19.70, 13.55, and 9.97 cm3, respectively, for the early, seasonal, and late flowering phases.