Study The Causes of Date Palm Fruits Absence by Insects and Fungi

Abstract

The current study has been performed during the cultivation season of 2010 to find out the causal agents of date palm fruits dropping. Three different areas were selected at basrah city which were: abu- Alkhaseeb, shaat Alarab and Alqurna. Several samples represent the dropped fruits of date palm were collected at three time period, the first period was the end of march, the second was 30 days after the first period and the third one was 60 days after the first period the associated fungi with fruits dropping were isolated, and the inhibition activity of the some fungicides were tested against most predominant fungi.Results indicated that the first period was the lowest period for the fruits dropping percent which was 16.89%, followed by the third period which showed the highest percent and reported 55%. Shaat Alarab area was the highest among studied area in the total fruit dropping percent which was 46.56% compared to the lowest percentage reported in Abu-Alkhaseeb area 33.33%.In addition, results revealed that the lesser moth insect Barletoria amydraula was the main causal agents of fruit dropping, and no other insect was reported during all above mentioned period. Different fungal species were isolated from the dropped fruits as the follow Alternaria alternate, A. raphani, cladsporium oxysporum, fusarium chamydosporium, F. oxysporum, F. solani, F.moniliform, Ulocladium sp., U. alternariae, U. chartarum. U. consertiale and Ulocladium sp. Its noteworthy that the fungal species were the most abundant causal agents of date palm fruit dropping with a total percent of 28.00% compared to 22.63% which reported with the lesser moth insect, also, both fungal species of Alternaria alternate and F.moniliform were the most predominant species among other fungi with isolation percent 12.01% and 11.66%, respectively. Finally, the fungicide vacomel M.Z. 72% proved high efficiency in their growth inhibition of isolation fungi with percent of 100%.