Indian Journal of Science and Technology
DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2011/v4i11.18
Year: 2011, Volume: 4, Issue: 11, Pages: 1542-1546
Original Article
I.A. Al-Abdoulhadi1*, H. A Dinar2 , G. Ebert3 and C. Büttner4
1 National Date Palm Research Center, P.O. Box 43, Alhassa 31982, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2 FAO office – UN - Ministry of Agriculture, Riyadh, KSA
3 COMPO, GmbH & Co. KG, Gildenstraße 3848157, Münster/Germany
4 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Landwirtschaftlich-Gärtnerische Fakultät, Fachgebiet Phytomedizin-Lentzeallee 55/57
[email protected] *; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected]
The date palm Phoenix dactylifera L. is the most important crop in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom produces nearly a million tons of dates annually from an estimated 21 million date palms. Trials conducted at the National Date Palm Research Centre, Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia to determine the effect of salinity on leaf growth, leaf injury and biomass production in date palm revealed that increasing soil salinity levels adversely impacted growth and biomass of date palm, besides causing leaf injury. However, Saudi Arabia’s premier date cultivar (Khalas) was the most salt tolerant cultivar tested in this study as it recorded the best leaf growth, least leaf injury and significantly lowest reduction in biomass upon application of salt treatments.
Keywords: Phoenix dactylifera L., biomass, date palm, leaf growth, salinity
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