Response of Samany Date Palm to Different Methods and Times of Fruit Thinning Under Assiut Conditions

Abstract

T HIS experiment was conducted during 2020 and 2021 on Samany date palms grown in new reclaimed sandy soil at private orchard located at Al Assiuty valley, Assuit, Egypt, to improve yield and some physical and chemical fruit quality by strand thinning (shortening 25% of length of all strands from the terminal tips at pollination and one month after pollination or removing 25% of total strands from the center of the bunch at pollination and one month after pollination. These results indicated that the control gave the highest bunch and total yield than the other treatments but all thinning treatments increased most of physical properties; fruit weight, flesh weight, fruit length, and diameter and thickness . Also improved the chemical properties such as TSS, total sugars, and reducing sugars. Strand thinning by removal 25% of the total number of strands at month after pollination gave the highest physical and chemical properties.