The Effect of Different Methods and Quantities of Pollination on the Infestation Percentage by two of Early Date Fruit Insect Pests in Date Palm Farms in New Valley Governorate, Egypt
Keywords:
Date palm, pollination methods, fruit set, fruit retention, Aphomia (Arenipses) sabella, Batrachedra amydraulaAbstract
The primary cash crop in the Egyptian Oases is date palm, and insect pest infestations are a limiting factor in date production. current research concentrated on the Siwi date palm cultivar, which has a significant economic influence in El Kharga Oasis in the New Valley governorate of Egypt. There were two years of field trials to investigate the effects of the amount of pollen grain used in three
pollination techniques (hand pollination with fresh pollen strands, spraying pollen grains suspension (pollens/L water) and dusting of (pollens+starch) on the infestation % with two early date palm pests,the greater date moth, Aphomia (Arenipses) sabella (Hampson) and the lesser date moth, Batrachedra amydraula (Meyrick) and also its effect on initial fruit set and fruit retention (%) of date
fruits. Obtained results indicated that the infestation of date fruits by the two tested insect pests increase by the increase of whether the number of pollen strands, the amount of pollen grains, and the percentage of pollen grains during date palm pollination by the three tested methods. Regarding the effect of different ways of date palm pollination on the initial fruit set and fruit retention (%) of date fruits, the results indicated that there was no clear trend in the results. It is possible to recommend the use of the three treatments for pollination methods: hand pollination with 7 fresh pollen strands, spraying pollen grains suspension (2.5 g pollens/L water) and dusting of 2.5g pollens + 10g starch (1:4), because they led to a low infestation % by the two tested insects, and at the same time to a high percentage of initial fruit set and fruit retention. It reduces the amount of pollen required and reduces the cost of providing it, especially since the number of female palms is increasing and the need for large quantities of pollen to pollinate females.
