propagation of date palm for mass production limited by high technology and time.date palm could be easy germinated form seed with low very low cost methods.we discover that you can end up with mature plant in 6 month compared to 3 years in biotechnology method and you can produce millions plants with in 6months.
the remaining thing is to compare the varieties with their mothers plants and the quality of the fruits.we seek collaborations with other interesting research groups
fast date palm production needed for mass production of date palm to be used as shelter built for combating desertification or as commercial date palm forest
Hello Dear
Reasons in favour of discouraging seed propagation, are the following:
* Date palm is a dioecious species and consequently half of the progeny will be males and half will be females, with no certain way to determine at an early stage the sex of the progeny, nor fruit or pollen quality prior to flowering (often only seven years later);
* Female plants originating from seedlings usually produce late maturing fruits of variable and generally inferior quality compared to established clonal palms. In a seedling plantation it is rare that more than 10 percent of the palms produce fruit of satisfactory quality;
* Date palms are heterozygous, and thus there will be much variation within the progeny, and desirable characteristics of the parent palm may be lost. In other words, it is not true to type propagation and no two seedling palms are alike;
* Seedlings differ considerably with regard to production potential, fruit quality and harvesting time, making them very difficult to market as one harvest;
* The above reasons result in waste of time, space and money.
Best regards
thanks alt,this what is mentioned in literature without scientific published paper evidence.
in fact we did a trial experiment and we found that most of this mentioned information which we believe before about 50% true and 50% false.the remaining thing is the fruit quality but when we talk about quality we most grade quality first dose it produce second class fruit instead of first one or third class or you will not going to have any fruit that even could not be suitable for industrial purposes (ethanol). In fact we found mature fruit in 2years and 3years age plants cultivated from seeds with good fruit quality.
to be more clear
if we plan for 32 million mature plants we can start with 4million plants from seeds.
this will produce only 2million female and after 4-5 years this females will produce 4to5 seedling. after 7years and the number will be 32million and most or all of them will give fruits.
this huge numbers could not be achieved easily by biotechnology it may require more than30years and high cost programme.
yes you are 50% right it is waste of time, space and money if you compare the tow methods with few plants but for mass production and forest establishment our methodology looks good.
Prime reason is the dioecious nature of the dates which makes us difficult to maintain female: male ratio
The above discussion is based on seeds.
Why not slect the best genotype and go for tissue culture micropropogation and Somatic embryogenesis.
High technology ,high cost for mass production,expert staff which require high salary, the output (plants) are less than the suggested method.
For mass production of date palm, I think tissue culture more suitable, also, it's to difficult to maintain female: male ratio in seed propagation.
thanks for response,yes you are right for the first generation 50% will be males in fact you need this variation for fertilization.the second generation will be taken from females after 5-7years each female will produce 3-4 mature seedling (vegetative propagation (asexual).
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