Basrah Journal For Date Palm Research

The present study was carried out at a private orchard , in Shatt-Alarab
region –Basrah, during the season of 2015 .The aim was to investigate
the effect of foliar feeding of (liquid compost University) with
ingredients (nitrogen7%,phosphorus 5%,potassium%
7,magnesium5%andpotassiumHaomat0.5%as well as some minor
elements such as iron and copper), Concentrations(0, 10, 20 and 30%) on
leaves on the productive of date palm cv. Sayer. Results showed that the
spraying concentration of 30%was significant increase in the percentage
of fruit set, fruit weight, bunch weight, increase the percentage of fruit
ripening and production of fruits(78%, 6.96g,7.16kg,28.8%,
24.65kg)respectively as compared to other treatments. While the control
treatment(0%) given lower rates of all traits.

This study was conducted in the careless date palm orchards in middle of the Basra
province (shatt AlArab location) during the growing seasons 2014and2015, The study
aimed to find out the effect of added two type of fertilizer (Fertilizer compound Neutral
Ground and foliar fertilizer) to palms trees in some growth, Physical and chemical
properties of fruits and productivity .ground fertilizer add around the trees in two treatments
(2.5 and 5)kg/tree ,foliar fertilizer add in two treatments(5 and 10)ml/l at two times the first
in February and the second in April for both seasons ,as well as Interference and control
treatments.The results were collected of both seasons and analyzed statistically by Genstat
2010 program.The results showed :
The foliar fertilizer treatments effect Significantly for most properties such as (The
Percentage Of Fruit Set, Defoliation Of Fruit and some Physical and chemical properties of
fruits Compared with the ground fertilizer Reflected in productivity for each seasons.
The results showed the fertilizer treatment consisting of(5 kg/tree ground fertilizer and 5
ml/l foliar fertilizer) effect significantly in average for fruit set in both seasons was reached
88.17% .while Decreased the percentage Of Fruit drop was reached 9.0%, and the same
treatment gave the best response for physical properties of fruits( weight and length) were
reached 6.78 gm and 6.0 cm respectively. And chemical properties of fruits (total sugar
,carbohydrate ,protein and the Total soluble solids) were reached (75.70%,75.25%,3.96%
and 56.40%) respectively.
The same treatment effected significantly In The enzymes activity at fruit in both seasons
,invertase enzyme activity reached 30.917 unit/gm/min, Cellulase enzyme activity reached
16.433 unit/gm/min while pectin esterase enzyme activity reached 0.1711mlmeq/gm/min
compare with other treatments and control.
The same treatment gave the best response in productivity properties .as it was the
percentage of fruit repining in both seasons 88.23% while bunch weight reached 6.18kg and
the total productivity of tree reached 37.1 kg.

This study was conducted at the Date palm research center
University of Basra. The study depended on propagation date palm
cultivar Hillawi through somatic embryos and adventious buds from
callus. The nutrient media are described at each stage of growth and the
effect of cultured explants is MS and the date of culture were studied. The
results showed that the date palm of culture played a great role
developing the explants. The explants that were cultured in January and
march showed positive effects leading to a significant decrease in the
percentage of the contamination which reached 5 and 10% and
percentage browning which was 5 and 0% respectively, whereas
significantly increased in the percentage of callus induction which was
25% and 15% respectively. The date of June showed the highest
contamination and browning that reached 40 and 25% respectively. No
callus induction occurred at all from the culture explants June. The apical
caused a decrease in the percentages of contamination and browning that
were 10% and 5% respectively. Leaf primordia's showed the highest
percentage of contamination and browning and less percentage of callus
induction which was 30, 35 and 5%. No difference in callus development
from apical buds, auxiliary buds and leaf primordia's was observed as far
as the required time to its development, the nature of growth when
transmitted to other media containing 5% mg.L-1 NAA. The somatic
embryos were germinated in a medium containing 0.1 mg.L-1 NAA.
When the callus was transformed to a medium containing 2 to 3 mg.L-1
BA and 1to 2 mg.L-1 NAA by lowering MS concentration to the half, the
callus depended to adventious buds that prolonged in a media containing
60 mg.L-1 of adenine sulphates without any growth regulators. These
buds was rooted in a medium containing 0.1 mg.L-1 NAA. The plantlets
that resulted from the somatic embryos significantly increased than those
that resulted from adventious buds when they were acclimatized to the
outer conditions. The results were 40 and 10% respectively.

This study was condact in private orchard in Basra during the
growing season 2014 to study some anatomical and chemical changes
between infected fruits by dust mite (Oligonychus afrasiaticus ) and non
infected fruits of date palm during different growth stages .The results
showed that non infected fruits had a significant effect on thickness of
exocarp layer and thickness of tannin layer ,which recorded (195.6,630
micrometer) as bellow, while it was (164 , 300 micrometer) in non-
infected . The tannin layers had got different shapes between non
infected fruits and infected fruits ,it appeared as a continuous layers in
all growth stages of non-infected fruits ,while it was appeared as
discontinuous layer during growth stages of infected fruits .Also the
chemical study showed a significant effect between infected and non-
infected fruits in content of phenol ,the total soluble solids ,carbohydrate
,total titratable acidity and water content.

An experiment was conducted during season of 2015 at AL-
der, north of Basrah. The aim was to study the Effect of salt stress on
leaf mineral element content for three offshoot for date palm The
study inluded nine treatment in factorial combinations of interaction with
three offshoot for date palm cultivar(sayer,Hillawi and khudraw ) and
three concetrtion of NaCl (0,7,15) .Randomized complete Block Design
was used three replicates . test was at probability of 5% . Result
showed that increasing NaCl concentration In the irrigation water caused
a decrease in nitrogen ,phosphorus ,potassium,Calcium and mainganes
in leaves for both cultirats( Sayer ,Hillawi and Khudrawi) .wharase it
cause an increase in proline cotent. The cuctivar sayer had
asignificantly hight in the in nitrogen ,phosphorus ,potassium,Calcium ,
minganes and proline in content of date palm in leaves The interation
between the two factors caused significant effect in all studided
parameters.

The fungal diseases of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) are one of the most serious
pathogens attacking different parts of date palm trees and causing significant
reduction in date palm growth; development and production. Recently, the infection
of date palm fruit with rot disease in Basra province/ Iraq is raising concern for the
workers in dates production. The goal of present study was to isolate and identify
these pathogens using molecular approaches. Four genera were isolated from infected
Barhee cv fruits which were: Alternaria; Cladosporium, Epicoccum and Ulocladium,
most abundantly genus was Alernaria (35%), followed by Cladosporium (25%). The
high virulence affects of these pathogens were approved at laboratory on dates fruits.
Molecular identification using internal transcribed spacer primers (ITS1 and ITS2)
were performed, ITS DNA sequences of each examined fungi were applied into
BLAST (NCBI) and the species identities were proven as A. tenuissima; C. herbarum;
E. sorghinu, and U. atrum. Further, five different RAPD markers were applied to
show the genetic variation among these pathogens, results showed that dendrogram
cluster analysis elucidated a genetic distance of 83-94% among fungal species, which
separated into different clusters. Additionally, the observations of extracellular
enzyme activity of examined fungi were followed, results showed a good activity of
both cellulase and protease enzymes, but no lipase activity was observed with all
tested fungi.