Assessment of Harvest Losses in Mejhoul Date Variety in Northwest Mexico

Abstract

Objective: To assess date losses during harvest and identify the factors causing them.

Design/methodology/approach: A complete randomized block design with ten repetitions was used; the different farms where data on the evaluated variables were taken were the treatments. In each treatment, 10 plants were selected from which data on average fruit weight, polar and equatorial fruit diameter, fruit weight, number of clusters per plant, and yield in tons per hectare were taken.

Results: For yield in tons per hectare of good fruits during the date harvest in the 2023 cycle, an average of 11 t ha^-1, 14 t ha^-1, 8 t ha^-1, and 15 t ha^-1 was found for the plantations of El Pólvora, El Pino, Las Palmas and Cucapah respectively. In losses during the harvest, Cucapah Farm presented the highest losses with an average of 1.2 t ha^-1, while El Pino was the one that presented the lowest losses with an average of 0.7 t ha^-1. Fruits with a percentage greater than 10% of peeled skin are also considered losses during the harvest, because they cannot be marketed for fresh consumption.

Limitations on study/implications: Data were collected only from the harvest; exact dates of irrigation and fertilizer application are not available as the study was conducted with cooperating producers. This factor is crucial for the quality and yield of date palm cultivars.

Findings/conclusions: The age of the plant represents a significant difference in the yield per hectare due to the number of clusters it has; the more clusters it has, the higher the yield. The relative humidity directly affects the quality of the dates, and there are a more significant number of bulging fruits (with peeled skin). In this evaluation, we found that the rains during August and September 2023 significantly affected the losses during the date harvest in that season.