ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE METHODS OF POLLINATION IN DATE PALM (Phoenix dactylifera L.) CV. ‘MEJHOUL’ IN MOROCCAN OASES

At the date palm tree (Phoenix datylifera L.), artificial pollination is necessary to improve fruit setting and enhance economical yield. This study was conducted at a private farm of date palm production cv ‘Mejhoul’ in a conventional farm during 2016 season, under pedoclimatic conditions of Tinejdad, Errachidia region, Morocco. The experiment was designed to compare the effectiveness of three pollination methods and their response to fruit setting percentage, yield and fruits characteristics. Two pollinizers (symbolized M1 and M2) combined with Three pollination methods were compared i.e. hand pollination as well as traditional technique, the dusting of pollen and the liquid spray of pollen. Three ‘Mejhoul’ female trees were selected for the experiment, on the female tree, six spathes were selected, each spathe was pollinated by one pollen source according to a method. Fruit samples were collected during ‘Tmar’ stages. Results revealed that different pollination techniques had significantly affected all studied parameters, metaxenic effect was observed between pollinizers (M1 and M2). Moreover, the highest fruit set of 65.06% and 59% was recorded in the placement method for two pollen sources M1 and M2, respectively. However, the lowest fruit set (53.25 and 50.29%) were observed in liquid spraying pollen method for M1 and M2, respectively. The highest date yield was recorded for dusting pollen from pollinizer M1 (58.23 kg/palm). Liquid spray of pollen method produced the minimum yields for both pollinizers (50.42 Kg/palm for M 1 and 43.67 kg/palm for M2). The dusting of pollen engendered dates with maximum linear dimensions for both pollinizers. Indeed, lengths of dates from M1 and M2 were 48.2 mm and 48.38 mm, the maximum widths were 24.97 mm and 24.72 mm, respectively. However, the hand pollination produced dates having a majority of minimum parameters for the M2 pollinizer (fruit width: 22.17 g; fruit weight: 11.69 g; pulp weight: 10.59 g). It was concluded that the dusting of pollen method was found instrumental in improving the yield and quality of ‘Mejhoul’ date palm.