Plant-Water Relations and Productivity of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Cultivars PDF

Keywords

Date Palm, Phoenix dactylifera yield, Chlorophyll, leaf specific mass, Relative Water Content

Abstract

The present investigation deals with the plant-water relation and its effect on chlorophyll content and productivity in six date palm cultivars. Growth and yield of date palm cultivars differed at the expense of same level of relative water content. Maktoomi showed a significantly higher leaflet area coupled with a higher amount of chlorophyll pigments that led to higher yield per tree. Kowerah recorded a poor yield by having significantly lower chlorophyll content and leaflet area Relative Water Content (RWC) had no effect on the fruit quality. Correlation among the relative water content, chlorophyll content, leaf specific mass and yield was also analyzed. Most of the pairs of parameters exhibited a highly significant correlation for the six cultivars. Apart from physiological parameters, the effect of male pollinator with suitable combination of female variety had a great effect on the fruit set and yield of date palm