The Effects of Age on Some Physical Properties of Oil Palm Fruitlets

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of age on some physical properties of Dura and Tenera cultivars of oil palm fruitlets. Fresh fruit bunches of Tenera and Dura were obtained from three different oil palm plantations corresponding to their age of cultivations: 20, 30 and 50 years.  Physical properties of their fruitlets were measured at different moisture contents using ASAE standard. The result shown that, as age increases from 20 to 50 years, mass of Tenera fruitlets increases from 7.25 to 14.89 (g), while Dura fruitlets increases from 3.71 to 11.56 (g). The sphericity of Dura cultivars increased from 80 to 87%, while that of Tenera fruitlets decreased from 81 to 64%. However, true densities of Dura and Tenera cultivars increased from 978.56 to 1180.32 (kg/m³) and 973.04 to 1160.14 (kg/m³) respectively, while bulk densities increased from 720.50 to 882.25 (kg/m³) and 680.41 to 865.92 (kg/m³) respectively.  The effect of age on mass, axial dimension, coefficient of static friction, true and bulk densities for Dura and Tenera cultivars fruitlets were significantly different (p<0.05) within and in-between cultivars except angle of repose  and sphericity of Dura cultivar.