Strand thinning of Khadrawi date palm cultivar in relation to yield and fruit quality

Abstract

The present results indicated that strand thinning by removing 30% of the total number of strands gave the lowest bunch weight and yield per palm compared to thinning 15% and control treatments during the two seasons of study. Also, removing 30% of the total number of strands improved some physical properties, i.e., fruit weight, flesh weight, fruit length, and fruit diameter than control in both seasons. All strand thinning treatments improved some chemical properties such as TSS %, total sugars %, and reducing sugars % than control (without thinning). However, both 15 and 30% strand thinning treatments had no significant effect on nonreducing sugars %, total acidity %, and tannins content in the two studied seasons.