Drip Fertigation Technology for Enhancing Date Palm Productivity and Fruit Quality

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during two successive growing seasons, 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 to evaluate the effect of different fertilizer application methods on date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) yield and fruit quality grown in sandy soil. Strip block statistical design with three replicates was used on four selected date palm cultivars (Madjool, Sacchari, Kheyarah and Sggaa) as main treatments and three fertilizer application methods (Hydraulic injector, Surface Broadcast and By-pass tank) as sub main treatments. The results revealed significant increases in yield and fruit quality when using continuous fertigation by Hydraulic injector comparing with broadcast and By-pass tank traditional methods. The average of two seasons results indicated also that using Hydraulic injector method maximized Sacchari date yield by producing 69 kg per tree and resulted in the best water productivity (1.06 kg m-3). The use of fertigation method has significantly increased the date palm productivity by 81, 51.2, 66.7 and 72.8% in comparison to the traditional Surface Broadcast method for Madjool, Sacchari, Kheyarah and Sggaa, respectively. The mean fruit weights were significantly increased by 56.5, 72.1, 90.2 and 68.8% when using the hydraulic injector compared to the traditional broadcast application method for pervious date palm cultivars, respectively.