Contribution to monitoring the influence of air temperature on some phenological stages of the date palm (cultivar ‘Deglet Nour’) in Biskra

Abstract

Algeria, one of the potential date producers in the world, is exposed to the different impacts of global warming. This climatic phenomenon probably has repercussions on date palm cultivation. The main purpose of this contribution is to monitor the phenological stages of the date palm and calculate the thermal requirements for this plant, also the study of impacts temperature on date growth. The results obtained are compared with older data recorded in the same region. We recorded the temperatures of the air measured inside two palm groves in the wilaya (state) of Biskra, namely Zaouiet Ben Ouaar and Mangae Bougtaf. At the same time, weekly observations were made to follow the phenological stages of Deglet Nour during two agricultural seasons (2015–2017), at the level of these two palm groves; in order to highlight the relationship between air temperature and the growth of the cultivar date studied. The first results show that Deglet Nour, in Biskra, ripens after around 250 days from the date of appearance of female inflorescences, with thermal requirements that exceed 4000 °C. Air temperature is one of the limiting factors of date palm growth. It has a direct influence on the development of dates and on the quality and yield of this product. Phoenix dactylifera L. can withstand extreme temperatures, going from freezing to over 50 °C.

Keywords

• Date palm
• Phenological cycle
• Global warming
• Air temperature
• Impact
• Biskra