A Master’s thesis from the College of Agriculture focusing on a study of the response of two varieties of date palm, Maktoom Yellow and Barime, to traditional pollination methods and to a pollen extract supplemented with sorbitol and Atone.

The College of Agriculture at the University of Diyala has discussed a Master’s thesis titled “Response of the Date Palm Varieties Maktoom Yellow and Barime to Traditional Pollination Methods and Pollen Extract Supplemented with Sorbitol and Atone.”

The study presented by the student, Raghad Saad Sobhi, aimed to evaluate the response of the date palm varieties Maktoom Yellow and Barime to traditional pollination methods and to the application of pollen extract at a concentration of 5 grams per liter, supplemented with sorbitol and Atone, in terms of various physical and chemical traits. The date palm varieties used were 50 years old, propagated by offsets and as homogenous as possible. The trees were pollinated with the Samisimi variety, and 24 palms from each variety were selected, treating each palm as a separate experimental unit, resulting in a total of 48 experimental units.

The study reached several conclusions, including: the Barime variety exhibited significant superiority over the Maktoom Yellow variety in most of the studied traits. The results indicated that spraying the date palm trees with sorbitol at a concentration of 10 grams per liter significantly improved the physical and chemical properties of the fruits, while spraying the date palm trees with Atone at a concentration of 2 milliliters per liter showed significant superiority in most of the physical and chemical traits as well.

The study recommends: utilizing sorbitol at a concentration of 10 grams per liter and Atone at a concentration of 2 milliliters per liter to achieve optimal results in most physical and chemical traits. It also suggests conducting further experiments related to the addition of sorbitol and the growth regulator Atone to plants and fruit trees, especially date palms, and exploring other combinations of sorbitol and Atone on different varieties due to their positive effects on the physical and chemical properties of the fruits.