Effects of Fruit Bagging Materials on Yield and Fruit Quality of ‘Barhee’ Date Palm

Abstract

Fruit bagging is an important factor for increasing the quality of date palm yield. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of fruit bagging materials on yield and fruit quality of date palm variety “Barhee” at farmer's orchard in Fang district, Chiang Mai province in 2023. The experiment used randomized complete block design with five replications. Four treatments were investigated: 1) non- bagging, 2) transparent plastic bag, 3) blue plastic bag and 4) brown paper bag. Date palm fruits were thinned and covered with three different bags at the age of 2 months after pollination. The fruit samples were investigated for physical and quality changes. We found that using blue plastic bag or brown paper bag or transparent plastic bag resulted in larger fruit size, weighing 14.03-15.49 g, seed length 22.04-22.19 mm, seed weight 1.30-1.35 g, bunch weight 7.45-8.72 kg, number of fruits per bunch 561.5-676.5 and pulp weight 12.70-14.14 g which were significantly higher than non-bagging treatment with fruit weight 11.97 g, seed length 20.45 mm, seed weight 1.21 g, bunch weight 1.1 kg, number of fruits per bunch 74.33 and pulp weight 10.76 g. Bagging with blue plastic bag or brown paper bag or transparent plastic bag could similarly decrease damages caused by disease, insects, fruit cracking and birds better than non-bagging. Moreover, blue plastic bag and brown paper bag also improved peel color to dark yellow throughout bunch and extended harvesting period which were better than transparent plastic bag and non-bagging. There were no differences in TSS and brown seed coloration between bagging or non-bagging. Overall, blue plastic bag was recommended for Barhee date palm fruit bagging because this treatment could improve fruit quality, reduce fruit damage, extend harvesting period and be economical than other bagging treatments.