Impact of Chemical and Non-Chemical Thinning Treatments on Yield and Fruit Quality of Date Palm

The fruit thinning process is employed for the production of high quality large-sized fruits and prevent the production of compact bunches. It is also one way to reduce the alternate bearing habits in date palm. In this study, seven thinning treatments (i.e. without spraying water after pollination, spraying water at 3 minutes after 3, 4 and 5 h, spraying Ethephon at 0, 500 and 1000 ppm after ten days from pollination) are used for Khalas and Ruzeiz date palm cultivars. The factorial experiment in a randomized completely block design with three replicates was done. The results reveal that, spraying water after mechanical pollination has reduced fruit set% and increased fruit shees%. Most thinning treatments reduced fruit yield/palm in both Khalas and Ruzeiz. Spraying water after 5 h enhanced fruit quality compared with the other thinning treatments in besr and tamr stages. Spraying with ethephon at 1000 ppm gave the increased sugars content and TSS, whereas reduced the moisture content in besr stage. Spraying water after 5 h from mechanical pollination or Ethephon at 1000 ppm after 10 days are suitable for obtaining economic yield with best fruit quality.