The season suited for harvesting date palm sap can vary according to the variety of dates that the palm was originally used to produce sap from. In most cases, however, the collection season of the date begins in the middle of the summer and continues until the beginning of September. Dates will ripen quickly in regions that are warm and tropical, which will facilitate the collection of khodri dates palm sap at an earlier stage. The autumn is traditionally the peak season for the manufacturing of date syrup. Piarom and Shahani are the most desirable dates for this by-product simply because of the high syrup content in both of those varieties of dates.
Palm sap
This means that the collecting time for date syrup will coincide with the harvest season of these dates. Depending on the variety of dates, the harvesting process can either be completed manually or by using machinery. One of the most significant horticulture crops in many nations is the palm (James, 1980 and Kamal, 1969). Date palms, palmyra palms, and coconut palms are the three most prevalent varieties of palm trees found in Bangladesh. Currently, these trees are being grown sporadically over Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, relatively little attention is paid to the methodical cultivation of palm for improved output. Palm cultivation offers the possibility of a large financial gain. The wild date palm is widely grown in Bangladesh. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, West Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and others are significant date palm-producing nations. Khodraes, Heloyee, Fard, Deylet, Noor, Zahida, etc. are significant varieties (Blatter, 1978). In the Bangladeshi districts of Jessore, Faridpur, Kustia, Khulna, and Rajshahi, palm trees are planted, and palmyra palms are also abundantly available throughout the country. There is a wealth of literature on the harvesting of nuts and fruits (Blatter, 1978; Dowson, 1982; Naik, 1963), but very little is known about the collection of palm tree sap.
It is recommended that the following activities be carried out in order to enhance the method of harvesting and to keep the quality of the sap intact. (I) The cultivation of young trees ought to take place in a nursery in order to achieve the best possible structure for the tree and to make harvesting it more straightforward. It is recommended that research be carried out on the cultivation of palm trees. (ii) Appropriate education and training programmes ought to be established in order to ensure the successful cultivation of palm. It is important to conduct a study and gain practical experience in order to determine the ideal time to collect sap. A satisfactory harvest is dependent on the correct method of cutting as well as the appropriate level of tree maintenance. (iii) In order to cut down on the required amount of energy and to prevent the sap from becoming naturally polluted, one solution is to utilise a lengthy plastic pipe that is equipped with various arrangements for receiving the sap. (iv) A self-propelled hydraulic lift or belt pulley system might be designed to reduce the risk of injury to climbers and increase the efficiency with which sap can be collected when trees are cut down.
palm sap collection
An investigation was carried out to determine the many parameters that are involved in the process of extracting sap from date and palmyra palm plants. Several different characteristics, including climbing techniques, cutting methods, harvesting season and sap collection methods, yield of sap, and the effect of temperature and humidity on yields, were investigated. The costs associated with the gathering of sap from sukkary date palms and palmyra palms are compared here. An investigation on the relationship between temperature, relative humidity, and the number of harvest days was carried out statistically. The palmyra palm tree produces sap in the winter, while the date palm tree does so in the summer. Date palm: For the collecting of sap, mature date palm trees were selected. After cleaning the tree, a V-shaped surface was formed by cutting a thin slice on the head of the stem, and a hollow round bamboo stick was embedded into the lower angular point of the V-shaped cut. This was done so that the stick would protrude from the V-shaped surface. Under the outermost end of the bamboo pole, a sanitary container (a pitcher) was positioned. Regular cleaning of the V-shaped cut surface was accomplished by cutting a very thin slice on the V-shaped surface to create a channel for the sap to flow into the clay pot. In most cases, sap was gathered from one side of the tree in a given year; however, the next year, sap had to be collected from the opposite side of the tree as the side that had been cut the year before. There will be a break of anything from one to two years between plantings on occasion so that the trees can reach their full potential. The sap of a palmyra palm does not need to be collected by cutting through the surface of the tree as is the case with other palm species. Cutting the panicles that grow at the top of the tree allows for the collection of sap. The panicle is an extension that can be found at the topmost point of the tree. They appear between the two leaves on an annual basis. A sap collector will chop off the extremity of the panicles in order to collect the sap. Figure 3 depicts the procedure for cutting the panicle as well as the process of collecting the sap. The length of each panicle ranged from 25 to 30 centimetres, while its diameter ranged from 2 to 2.5 centimetres. The sap was extracted from each panicle three times per day. A sickle or knife that was extremely sharp was used to cut the panicle off at its tip. Every day, anywhere from two to three cuts were made. Each slice had a thickness of around 0.3 centimetres. In the beginning, a bamboo splinter was rubbed against the panicles in order to get the flow of sap started. Three times a day, the exact identical procedure was carried out. In order to collect the sap, three to six panicles were knotted together and inserted into an appropriate container. The inside surface of the container was then cleaned down with lime water (Ca(OH)2) in order to clean and neutralise the sap.
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