Accordingly, both date palm productivity and fruit quality are negatively affected in such conditions. There is a growing demand in ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +966 0566123090; fax: +966 26952364.
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international market, for excellent quality dates of cultivars such as ‘Barhee’, ‘Medjool’, ‘Deglet Nour’, ‘Hayany’ and ‘Zaghloul’ (Botes and Zaid, 1999; Al-Qurashi and Awad, 2011a). ‘Barhee’ is a commercially important mid-season cultivar being extensively cultivated in KSA. ‘Barhee’ dates are different than other cultivars in which fruit are marketed and consumed fresh at the mature full yellow (bisir) stage as a crispy apple-like fruit due to low contents of soluble tannins (Botes and Zaid, 1999). Accordingly, there is a high demand for ‘Barhee’ offshoots for the new plantations but the number of offshoots which are naturally produced by mature fruiting palms is scarce. Thus, there is a special interest in ‘Barhee’