Effect of Fruit Thinning Practices on Fruit Quality of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) CV. Local

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during 2024 at the Horticultural Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, to evaluate the influence of fruit thinning practices on fruit quality of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. Local. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications. Eleven treatments were assessed, including different levels of strand thinning, strand shortening, fruit thinning within strands, and an unthinned control. Fruit thinning was carried out 28–35 days after pollination at the hababouak stage. Fruits were harvested at maturity, and quality attributes such as total soluble solids, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total sugar, and acidity were recorded. The results showed that thinning treatments influenced the quality parameters of date palm fruits. Among the treatments, thinning 50% strands per bunch recorded the highest total soluble solids (36.17 °Brix), reducing sugar (34.21%), non-reducing sugar (4.54%), and total sugar (38.75%), along with the lowest acidity (0.167%). The control treatment recorded the lowest total soluble solids (30.53 °Brix), reducing sugar (23.98%), non-reducing sugar (3.11%), and total sugar (27.09%), and the highest acidity (0.190%). The findings indicate that fruit thinning, particularly 50% strand thinning per bunch, improved fruit quality attributes under the conditions of the present study. This practice may help enhance the compositional quality of date palm fruits when applied at the pea stage of fruit development.