The effect of urea and potassium sulfate on chemical qualities of date (Phoenix dactilyfera cv. ‘Zahedi’) during fruit maturation phases

Abstract

The date palm fruit is a rich dietary food of human, in particular people lived in arid and semiarid regions of the world. In the present research, the influence of combined urea and potassium sulfate on chemical attributes fruit of ‘Zahedi’ cultivar during the fruit maturation growth in 2018 and 2019 was carried out as factorial experiment based on complete randomized block design (CRBD) with 3 replications. Urea source was N that applied at the 0, 0.5 and 1% concentrations which each level of urea embed with 3 different rates (0, 0.5, 1%) of potassium sulfate. The combination then sprayed at Hababouk and Chimri growth stages of the fruit development. The composition of urea and potassium sulfate reflected a significant quantity of N and indicated that application of 1% urea 1% potassium sulfate tended to incentive the greatest carotenoid at the Khalal. In overall, the combined spraying of urea and potassium sulfate resulted in chemical attributes improvement. Additionally, the results demonstrated that various changes among the different chemical qualities mainly depends on the maturity stage. Total soluble sugars, total acidity, starch, antioxidant activity, soluble tannin, total phenolic content, N, K, carotenoid generally exhibited a decreasing trend from Chimri to Tamar stages.

Keywords:

• Chimri
• Hababouk
• Khalal
• Potassium sulfate
• Rutab
• Tamar
• Urea

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewer for his/her most helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Food and Agriculture Organization

2 Total soluble solids

3 Titratable Acidity

4 Analysis of Variance

5 Statistical Package for the social sciences

6 Michigan STATe-C

7 Statistical Analysis Software

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz (SCU).