Evaluation of pollen germination of some palm males and pollination impact on bunch weight and fruit quality in Kadary date palm cultivar (Phoenix dactylifera L.).

The present study was carried out during two successive seasons (2013-2014) at the Research and Agriculture Experiment Station, Dirab, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh. Pollen grains, used in this trial, were collected from eleven male, namely Succary, Menify, Sallag, Dikhiny, Nabout Zamel, Serry, Khalas, Shagra, Safry, Maktumi and Kadary in order to pollinate female Kadary date palm cultivar. Results indicated that pollens of Safry male followed by Succary, Menify and Serry males increased the physical and biochemical characteristics of fruits during both seasons. Also, all the studied characters were significantly affected with different pollen males used in this trial. Pollens of Safry male gave highest fruit retention and bunch weight and best fruit quality like fruit and flesh weight, fruit size and fruit length and fruit biochemical properties as compared with other male. In vitro pollen germination of eleven males was studied using various concentration of sucrose (4, 6, 8 and 10%). The results showed that best germination was achieved with 8% sucrose concentration; however, 10% sucrose resulted in reduced percentage of pollen germination. In addition, pollen tube growth of five males (Succary, Sallag, Nabout-Zamel, Khalas and Safry) at 8% sucrose was alsostudied at 2, 4, 6 and 24 hr time interval. Elongation rate of pollen tube increased significantly after 24 hrs and it was found that pollens of Safry male gave highest pollen tube growth after 24 hrs than pollens of other male.

Physico-chemical characteristics of oil produced from seeds of some date palm cultivars (Phoenix dactylifera L.) .

The oil content of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with some physico-chemical properties and nutrients were investigated in oil produced from seeds of six important date palm cultivars and one seed strain present in Saudi Arabia. The results indicated that the oil extracted from six seed cultivars of date palm ranged from 6.73-10.89% w/w oil. The refractive index of date seeds oil was found to be between 1.4574 to 1.4615. The iodine values, acid values and saponification values were in the range of 74.2-86.6 g iodine 100 g(-1); 2.50-2.58 mg KOH g(-1) and 0.206-0.217 mg KOH g(-1), respectively. Lauric acid, Myristic acid, Palmitic acid C15, Palmitic acid C16 Stearic acid, Arachidic acid and Behenic acid of date seeds oil contents were found between 8.67-49.27; 7.01-15.43; 0-0.57; 4.82-18.09; 1.02-7.86; 0-0.08; and 0-0.15% w/w, in that order. Omega-6 and Omega-9 of date seeds oil were found between 7.31-17.87 and 52.12-58.78%, respectively. Khalas, Barhy cvs. and seed strain gave highest K and Ca, Na and Fe, Mg as compared with other studied cultivars.

Fruit properties and genetic diversity of five ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk) cultivars.

The present study was conducted on five ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk) cultivars (Komethry, Pakstany, Um-sulaem, Toffahy and Peyuan) grown in Saudi Arabia during 2005 and 2006 seasons. The aim of the present study was to investigate fruit properties (fruit weight, length, diameter, shape, specific gravity, seed weight, pulp percentage, total soluble solids (TSS), acidity percentage, TSS/acid, vitamin C content total, reducing and non-reducing sugars). Peyuan cv. had the heaviest fruit weight, fruit volume and reducing sugar content however, it was the lowest in pulp percentage and non-reducing sugars among the five cultivars in both seasons. Toffahy cv. had highest fruit diameter and seed weight while, had lowest TSS %, vitamin C and total sugars values. Um-sulaem cv. had highest acidity percentage and vitamin C content and lowest fruit weight, length and TSS/acid. On the other hand, Pakstany cv. had highest percentage of both pulp percentage, TSS, total and non-reducing sugars. Finally, Komethry had the longest fruit. The molecular characterization and fingerprint identification of the ber cultivars was conducted using the ISSR (Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats) technique. The ISSR technique was able to uniquely characterize and differentiate between the five ber genotypes. Moreover, the genetic similarity tree showed that the cultivar Um-slaem is genetically distant from the other four cultivars and the two cultivars Pakstany and Komethry were genetically identical.