Morphological and phenological characterization for 5 improved varieties of zizyphusmauritiana in Niger

This study aims to establish the phenological performance of five (5) improved cultivars of the jujube tree Ziziphus mauritiana Lam. Introduced in Niger. Leaf growth, opening and abortion of flowers and fruit dynamics were monitored under an experimental design consisting of two lines of each variety and each line is consisting of 19 tree plants an overall of 38 plants tree per variety and 190 plants tree in total. Results showed that Umran cultivars recorded the highest leaf appearance with a mean of 6.2, while Ben Gurion and Kaitheli had the lowest mean value of 4.2 leaves. The highest number of flowers per flower bud was observed in the Umran variety with an average of 22 flowers per flower bud and the lowest number of flowers was recorded by Gola variety with an average of 18 flowers. Kaitheli variety showed the highest mean value of 20 fruits, while Seb variety recorded the lowest number of fruit with value of 8 fruits set up per week. The average length of flower opening differs from one variety to another with a probability, p = <0.001. Analysis of variance on the data of daily observations of aborted flowers by variety revealed no statistically significant difference with p = 0.742. Kaitheli variety showed the highest mean value of fruit, with 20 fruits on 20 flower buds bearing fruit per week. Umran variety has the largest mean diameter of 5.2 ± 0.01 cm and the highest average fruit weight of 44.10 ± 0.04 g. 22 fruits weighted 1kg at harvest. In fact, the cultivars with early leaves appearance at apical branch, are those which have a high rate of aborted flowers. As well as those that have large leaves are those that also have large fruit and high dry matter content.