Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• S. Rastegar ¹
• M. Rahemi ²

¹ PhD student, of Horticultural Science, Department of Horticultural Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

² Professor, of Horticultural Science, Department of Horticultural Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

Abstract

This research compared different characteristics of pollinated and unpollinated fruit of ^٬Shahani^٫ and ^٬Piarom^٫ date palms during fruit development. Physical and chemical characteristics of the pollinated and unpollinated fruits of two cultivars were studied during Kimri, Khalal, Rutab and Tamar stages. The results of variance analysis indicated that, in pollinated fruit, length and diameter increased strongly from Kimri to Khalal stages (17 to 37 mm in ^٬Piarom^٫ and 14 to 19 mm in ^٬Shahani^٫). The fruit weight reached a maximum at the immature yellow (Khalal) stage during fruit development. Moisture pencentage decreased continually especially in the Tamar stage and rech to 22 and 20 in ^٬Shahani^٫ and ^٬Piarom^٫ respectively. Total soluble solids (TSS) increased progressively during fruit development. The concentration of flavonoid and phenol contents and ash percentage was highest at early stages and then gradually decreased during fruit development to lower concentrations during ripening. Unpollinated fruit did not changed in mineral, ash and fruit weight during fruit ripening. Although TSS increased during fruit development, it was not significant in comparison with pollinated fruit. In general, the fruit of two cultivars, show sigmoid curve. Compored to Unpollinated fruit, pollinated fruit has more phenol and flavonoid but their other characters were lower.

Keywords

• Date palm
• Parthenocarpy
• Ripening
• chemical composition