الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an important commercial crop of many countries of the world and plays important role in the economical development of this countries. It is commercially grown in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, Algeria, Pakistan, India, USA and Spain.
New Valley governorate area is 37.7 of total Egypt area, it is located at an average distance of 250 km west Nile Valley and constitutes of three Oasis El-Kharga, El-Dakhla and El-Farafra. The most common date palm varieties grown in the New Valley Governorate are Seewy, and Tamr. Seewy variety is considered to be the national date palm variety in New Valley governorate. It is the most important cultivar of semi-dry dates and is very demand in the local and foreign markets.
This study carried out thought three separated experimental.
1 – First experiment:
This experiment was conducted in date palm Research Farm in Agricultural Research Station that located at El-Kharga Oasis, New Valley Governorate during two consecutive seasons of 2008 and 2009 on 35 years old Seewy date palms. The laboratory work of this study was conducted in Regional Agricultural Research Station of the New Valley, it was conducted to evaluate some male date palm types. Evaluation of the present males based on their vegetative growth and morphological aspects of trees and spathes, as well as pollen viability and germination. In addition to study the effect of males pollen grains on yield and fruit quality of Seewy dates. In addition, using RAPD to determine DNA fingerprinting to compare these males with Seewy cultivar.
Ten male seedling palms, seven of them grown in Agricultural Research Station that located at El-Kharga Oasis, and three male palms grown in a private orchard located at El-Dakhla Oasis, New Valley.
The following measurements were determined as follow:
A-Males characteristics.
1- Vegetative characteristics.
2- Spathes number and their characteristics.
3- Pollen grains characteristics.
4- RAPD –PCR variation among ten date palm males and Seewy cultivar.
B-Yield parameters.
1- Initial and Horticultural fruit set %:
The number of set fruit or retented fruit per strand was counted using 10 strands per spathe after thirty days from pollination as well as at harvest time.
2- Bunch weight:
All bunches were harvested at Tamr stage of Seewy , in the two experimental seasons. The average fruit weight/bunch (in kg) was determined for each pollenizer.
C- Fruit properties:
Samples of 30 fruits were picked at random from each bunch for the determination of physical and chemical characteristics.
1- Physical characteristics:
Physical characteristics included the determination of:
a- Average of whole fruit and seed weight (in gm), then pulp percentage was calculated.
b- Average of fruit length (L) and fruit diameter (D) were measured by vernier caliper (in cm), then the fruit shape index was calculated.
2- Chemical characteristics:
Chemical characteristics included:
a- Total soluble solids (T.S.S.) by a hand refractometer.
b- Reducing and total sugars were evaluated according to Lane and Eynon titimetric method.
D- General evaluation of the studied male palms.
2 – Second experiment:
This experiment was conducted to innovating as untraditional method in date palm pollination which combines both mechanical pollination and fruit thinning, in addition to improve the fruit quality.
The experiment was carried out during three successive growing seasons i.e. 2009, 2010 and 2011 on 26 years old Seewy date palms. The selected palms were grown in a private orchard located at El-Dakhla Oasis, New Valley, Egypt. The laboratory work of this study was conducted in Central Laboratory of Date Palm Researches & Development , Agriculture Researches Center, Giza , Egypt.
Ten uniformed date palms are free of insect damage and diseases were selected. The number of spathes per palm were adjusted to nine by removing excess earliest, latest and smallest inflorescences for achieving the following nine treatments:
T1-Spraying suspension pollen grains at 0.4 (g/L) pollen + 0.2g boric acid +10% sucrose .
T2- Spraying suspension pollen grains at 0.6 (g /L) pollen + 0.2g boric acid +10% sucrose
T3-Spraying suspension pollen grains at 0.8 (g /L) pollen + 0.2g boric acid +10% sucrose
T4- Spraying suspension pollen grains at 1.0(g /L) pollen + 0.2g boric acid +10% sucrose.
T5-Dusting pollen grains at 0.4 (g) pollen + 9.6g talc powder as a carrier.
T6-Dusting pollen grains at 0.6 (g) pollen + 9.4g talc powder as a carrier
T7-Dusting pollen grains at 0.8 (g) pollen + 9.2g talc powder as a carrier.
T8- Dusting pollen grains at 1.0 (g) pollen + 9.0g talc powder as a carrier
T9-Hand pollination method (control), by inserting 7 – 10 strands/ bunch.
These treatments were applied on each palm. Pollination was uniformed in respect of the source and method to avoid residues of metaxenia. The experiment was set up in a complete randomized block design with ten replications of one bunch each.
Hand pollination as well as pollination treatments (spray and dust) were applied at the third day of spathe cracking. Sprays of pollen suspensions are thoroughly applied to the bunch by small hand sprayer (1/2 liter capacity). Dust of pollen was done ,where pollen was mixed with talc powder in ratio ( 1:24, 16 ,12 & 9 ) . A hand pistol is used to release pressure and push the pollen through the pipes. To prevent the mixed pollination, after the spraying of pollen suspension or pollen powder dusting, every bunch was bagged by paper bags which is removed after four weeks.
The palms were subjected to the same horticultural practices and pruning was performed to maintain bunch/ mature leaves ratio of 1:7.
Yield parameters.
1- Initial fruit set %:
The number of set fruit or retented fruit per strand was counted using 10 strands per spathe after thirty days from pollination as well as at harvest time.
2- Bunch weight:
All bunches were harvested at Tamr stage of Seewy , in the two experimental season. The average bunch weight (in kg) was determined for each pollenizer.
B- Fruit properties:
Samples of 30 fruits were picked at random from each bunch for the determination of physical and chemical characteristics.
1- Physical characteristics:
Physical characteristics included the determination of:
a- Average of whole fruit and seed weight (in gm), then pulp percentage was calculated.
b- Average of fruit length (L) and fruit diameter (D) were measured by vernier caliper (in cm), then the fruit shape index was calculated.
2- Chemical characteristics:
Chemical characteristics included:
a- Total soluble solids (T.S.S.) by a hand refractometer.
b- Reducing and total sugars were evaluated according to Lane and Eynon titimetric Method.
3 – Third experiment:
The present experiment aimed to compare certain methods and degree of bagging spathes and their effects on yield and fruit quality during three successive seasons of 2009, 2010 and 2011. Ten palms in the same age (26 years) and uniform in growth and bearing of approximately the same number of spathes were selected. Pollination was uniformed in respect of source and method to avoid residues of metaxenia.
They were grown in a private orchard located at El-Dakhla Oasis, New Valley, Egypt. The laboratory work of this study was conducted in Central Laboratory of Date Palm Researches & Development , Agriculture Researches Center, Giza , Egypt.
The number of spathes per palm were adjusted to nine by removing excess earliest, latest and smallest inflorescences for achieving the following seven bagging treatments:
1 – Bagging bunches with white perforated plastic bags.
2 - Bagging bunches with blue perforated plastic bags .
3 - Bagging bunches with black perforated plastic bags .
4 - Bagging bunches with green perforated plastic bags .
5 – Bagging bunches with Sackcloth bags.
6 – Bagging bunches with gauze bags.
7 – Unbagged ( control ).
The bunches were bagged from per fruit coloration till their ripening. These treatments were applied on each palm. This experiment was set up in a complete randomized block design with ten replications of one bunch each.
A- Yield parameters.
1- Fruit ripening and fruit moisture %.
2- Bunch weight:
All bunches were harvested at Tamr stage of Seewy , in the two experimental season. The average bunch weight (in kg) was determined for each treatment.
B- Fruit properties:
Samples of 30 fruits were picked at random from each bunch for the determination of physical and chemical characteristics.
1- Physical characteristics:
Physical characteristics included the determination of:
a- Average of whole fruit and seed weight (in gm), then pulp percentage was calculated.
b- Average of fruit length (L) and fruit diameter (D) were measured by vernier caliper (in cm), then the fruit shape index was calculated.
2- Chemical characteristics:
Chemical characteristics included:
a- Total soluble solids (T.S.S.) by a hand refractometer.
b- Reducing and total sugars were evaluated according to Lane and Eynon titimetric Method.
C-General evaluation of the studied bagging treatments:
The obtained results could be summarized as follow:
First experiment:
A- Males characteristics
1- Vegetative characteristics:
1- The sixth male palm had the highest one compared to other male types, whereas, the seventh male palm was the shortest palm.
2- The tenth male palm was the biggest ones compared to other male palms.
3- the seventh male palm produced more annual leaves than other male palms but, the first and the eighth male gave the least annual leaves number.
4- The tenth male palm had the highest leaf area, where, the nine male palm had the lowest value and other males palms had intermediate values.
2- Spathes number and their characteristics:
1- The tenth male palm produced the highest number while the first male palm had the lowest ones.
2- Both the second and tenth male palms had the longest spathe and shortest in the ninth compared to other males.
3- the sixth male palm gave the highest flowers number/strand. Contrarily, the fourth male had produced the least flowers number/strand.
3- Pollen grains characteristics:
The tenth male recorded the highest pollen grain viability percentage. While, the second male revealed the least percentage. The germination percentage took a similar trend to that of viability percentage. So, it could be concluded that there was a positive relationship between pollen viability and germination.
4-RAPD –PCR variation among ten date palm males and Seewy cultivar.
- The total number of fragements produced by the five primer was 46.
- There were two specific bands to male number 1, and four specific markers to Seewy cultivar
- The highest genetic similarity (96.7%) was between the accessions: accession 6 and accession 8. while the lowest genetic similarity (73.7%) was detected between accession 1 and accession 10. Moreover, accession 9 get the highest genetic similarity with Seewy cultivar (89.7), whereas, accession 1 recorded the lowest genetic similarity (74.1) with it.
B- Yield Index
1- The sixth and tenth seeded males get the highest initial fruit set percentage, whereas, the second male gave the least value of initial fruit set on Seewy date palm.
2- The tenth male gave the highest fruit retention percentage, followed by the sixth and seventh male palms. whereas, the second male gave the least fruit retention values compared to other tested seedling males types.
3- The sixth, tenth and ninth seedling types get the heaviest fruit weight per bunch. On the contrary, the first seedling type gets the least values.
C- Fruit characteristics:
1- The seventh male type gave the highest fruit weight and flesh weight percentage. On the contrary, the tenth male type gave the least values of fruit weight and flesh weight percentage.
2- The Second, fourth and fifth male types get the highest fruit length, whereas, the tenth male type gave the least values of fruit length.
3- The moisture content was unsignificant different as used different male type palms.
4- Seventh male palm gave the highest T.S.S% and sugar content in comparison to other male types. On the contrary, the ninth male palm gave the least T.S.S %. whereas, the second male gave the least of the sugars contents.
D- General evaluation of the studied male palms.
- The tenth and sixth male palms gained the highest score (97.04 and 91.78 unit) according to fertility and fruiting characters, respectively. The least total score was recorded for the fourth male palm (82.43 units), ascending followed by the fifth male palm (83.48 units) and the first male palm (83.58 units).
- The seventh male gained the highest score (48.80 units ) for fruiting effective, descending followed by sixth male (48.35 units) and tenth male (48.23 units), the least score was recorded for eighth male (47.10 units).
It could be concluded that since the tenth and the sixth males recorded the highest effective on yield/palm, whereas, the seventh male gave the best effective on fruit quality.
So, it could be concluded that it must be select a male for every date palm cultivar, as well as must be use the pollen grains of the either tenth, sixth or seventh male palms to pollinate the palms in this area.
Second experiment:
Yield Index
1- The reduction on fruit weight/bunch was associated with decreasing the pollen grain concentration from 1.0 to 0.4 g.
2- There were insignificant differences in fruit weight/ bunch due to pollination by using 1.0 g pollen compared to traditional pollination. Also, there were insignificant differences in fruit retention and fruit weight/bunch due to pollination either by spraying pollen grains suspension or dusting pollen powder.
Fruit quality:
1- There was an improvement of the fruit physical either quality in terms of increasing the fruit weight, size and dimensions due to pollination with either spraying pollen grains suspension or dusting pollen compared to the traditional pollination (control).
2- The heaviest fruit were detected on palms pollinated with pollen grain suspension concentration at 0.4 g + 0.2 g boric acid + 10% sucrose.
3- No significant differences in fruit weight, size and dimensions were observed due to using dilution of pollen grains either spraying or dusting .
4- Pollination by pollen grains suspension or dusting were significantly improved the fruit chemical constituents in terms of increasing the soluble solids and sugar contents compared to pollination by traditional pollination.
5- Using pollen grain at 0.4g either suspension spraying or pollen powder dusting gave the maximum values of soluble solids and sugar contents, whereas, using the traditional pollination gave the minimum values.
6- No significant difference in fruit chemical properties were observed among the different pollination techniques compared to traditional pollination.
So, it could be concluded that pollination of Seewy date palm using pollen grain suspension concentrations at 1.0 g/L plus 0.2 g boric acid along with 10% sucrose was sufficient to get a high yield with good fruit quality.
Third Experiment
Yield Index
1- Bagging bunches with either white, black or blue perforated plastic bags significantly increased the fruit ripening percentage compared to other treatments. whereas the lowest values of fruit ripening percentage were recorded in the bunches that bagged with either sackcloth or gauze bags.
2- Bagging bunches with either sackcloth or gauze bags gave highest fruit weight/bunch. On the other hand, unbagged bunches (control ) gave the least value.
Fruit quality:
1- Bagging bunches with Sackcloth and gauze bags gave the highest fruit weight and flesh weight percentage, whereas, unbagged bunches (control ) gave the least these trait values compared to other treatments.
2- Bagging bunches with black perforated plastic bags gave the highest T.S.S % and sugar content in comparison to other bagging treatments. On the contrary, using either sackcloth or gauze bags gave the least T.S.S % and sugar content of Seewy dates.
General evaluation of the studied bagging treatments:
- Bagging with blue or black perforated plastic bags recorded the highest scores according to fruiting quality (78.80 and 78.55 units), respectively
- The least score for dates quality was recorded on bagging with sackcloth and gauze bags ( 68.62 and 70.49 units ).
So, it could be recommended to use blue or black perforated plastic bags in this area
Conclusion
from this study may be recommended that:
1- The importance of the evaluation of males date palm, and vegetative propagation of superior of them.
2- The RAPD method is a fast and relatively simple process for marker identification in date palm.
3- It must be select a male for every date palm cultivar, as well as must be use the pollen grains of the either tenth, sixth or seventh male palms to pollinate the palms in this area.
4- Pollination using either spraying suspension pollen grains at 1.0(g /L) pollen + 0.2g boric acid +10% sucrose or, dusting pollen grains at 1.0 (g) pollen + 9.0g talc powder as a carrier was sufficient to get a high yield with good fruit quality. The advantages of such pollination method reduces the labors and duration of pollination. It does not require a highly trained labors as with the traditional technique.
5- Using Bagging bunches with either blue perforated plastic bags, or black perforated plastic bags, at EL-Dakhla oasis to obtain a good yield and fruit characteristics of Seewy date palm.