The present study carried out during 2011 and 2012 seasons on “Zaghloul"
and “Samany" date palm cultivars grown on new reclaimed sandy soil, at New
Asuit City. Egypt, to investigate the effect of spraying with two sources of micronutrient
Silicon (KSi 10 % (A1) and K2O 10%+ SiO2 25 % (A2) on fruit retention,
bunch weight , total yield as well as some physical and chemical fruit
properties. The two Silicon materials sprayed once, twice and thrice one week
after pollination and 60 and 120 days later, respectively.
In general, inflorescences spraying with A1 and A2 sources at 0.8% one
time (one week after pollination) caused a significant increase in fruit retention
percentages as compared with control treatment in the two studied cultivars during
both seasons. Also, extending and repeating spraying times after pollination
caused a significant increase in fruit retention, bunch weight, total yield, fruit
weight, fruit dimensions and fruit content of TSS, total and reducing sugars in
both studied cultivars.
Palms that have been sprayed three times with K2O 10%+ SiO2 25 % (A2)
produced the highest yield components (fruit retention, bunch weight and total
yield), fruit weight and dimensions as compared with other treatments on both
cultivars during both seasons. The chemical fruit properties (TSS % as well as
total and reducing sugars %) under such treatments were higher than those under
KSi 10 % (A1) treatments in “Zaghgloul" fruits while the opposite trend observed
in “Samany" fruits treated with KSi 10 % (A1) where it was more effective
on improving chemical fruit properties than K2O 10%+ SiO2 25 % treatments.
No significant differences were found between all silicon treatments and
control on seed weight and fruit content of tannins.
Generally, the obtained results concluded that spraying “Zaghloul" and
“Samany" inflorescences three times with K2O 10%+ SiO2 25 % (A2) as a
source of potassium silicate was useful to gave a high yield /palm with high fruit
quality and could be consider as a recommended treatment under conditions of
this experiment.