Paper Title
Investigation on the Impacts of Manual and Mechanical Pollination on Date PalmCv. Khanezi in the Sultanate of Oman
Abstract
Abstract - Phoenix Dactylifera L. commonly known as Date palm, is a dioecious plant species in which male and female inflorescences are on different palms. In order to guarantee good fertilization and minimize the shortcomings of dichogamy, sustain yield levels and enhance fruit set, each female flower is required to be pollinated artificially. Various methods of artificial pollination of date palms have been tried over the years, such as, the traditional method of placing fresh male clusters, non-conventional methods of pollination with pollen dust and sprays. The non-conventional methods are performed either manually or mechanically. This paper investigates the effect of the above mentioned three artificial methods of pollination on the yield, fruit set and fruit quality on cultivar, Khanezi; a major date cultivar in Oman. The study was conducted during the 2021 season under the arid agro-climatic geographic location of the Sultanate of Oman. The paper also reviews other tools and technologies adopted by farmers across the globe, to pollinate date palms.
Keywords - Date Pam Pollination, Dry Pollen Dusting, Spray Pollination, Mechanical Pollination, FSP.