Abstract
This study was carried out during 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons on eight date palm cultivars namely Zaghloul, Haiany, Halawy, Eraby, Bent Aisha, Samani, Sewy and Amry grown at the Experimental Orchard, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Egypt. The main objectives of this study were to:
1- Compare the morphological characteristics of the bunches of eight date palm cultivars.
2- Study the relation between bunch emergence level and its morphological characteristics.
3- Determine the optimum patterns and fruit thinning percentage of the eight cultivars.
The results of the present study showed that bunches and strands morphological characteristics were differed according to the cultivar and bunch emergence level. All the studied characteristics tended to increase according to bunch emergence level from lower to upper. Fruit thinning percentage determined according to cultivar and bunch emergence level. It is worth notable that cutting back (1 cm) of strand, reduced the initial fruit load by 3.11, 3.74 and 4.64% as average of upper, middle and lower bunches respectively for tested cultivars. So the fruit thinning method could be selected according to the bunch and their strand characteristics. This study is important from economic and cultural view to obtain high yield with good fruit quality of date palm production.