Effect of Spraying Boron and Chelated Zinc on Some Chemical Characteristics of Three Date Palms

Abstract

Date palm is one of the most important fruits due to it contains of minerals and vitamins thus the addition of nutrients such as boron and chelated zinc can improve fruit quality. To investigate the effect of zinc (Zn) and boron (B) on fruit quality, the Zn and B were spraying in chelated form. The treatments were applied at two stages: one week before, and one week after pollination with the 'Simsimi' male cultivar in 2025. The experiment included 12 treatments resulting from the interaction of two factors: the first factor being three female varieties (Zhadi, Khistawi, and Tabarzel), and the second factor being a combination of boron and chelated zinc (control, boron 1.5 mg L-1, chelated zinc 50 mg L-1, boron 1.5 mg L-1 + chelated zinc 50 mg L-1). Spraying was conducted twice during the growing season. The experiment was carried out in factorial experiment with three replications. The study concludes that the use of a combined foliar spray of boron and chelated zinc is significantly increased total sugars and chlorophyll around 83.25% and 15.67% respectively. The Zhadi variety outperforms by giving the highest percentage of reduced sugars (65.38%) while the Khistawi variety was significantly superior in all the other characteristics. The results showed that spraying with zinc significantly affected on leaves content of chlorophyll and fruit content of nitrogen. The non-reduced sugar increased when spraying boron in khistawi. The combination of zinc and boron resulted in increasing protein, reduced and non-reduced sugar, and potassium in the fruits.