DATES

Phoenix dactylifera

This large mature Canary Island date palm makes an impressive sight within a local park in Melbourne

Close up of a palm frond showing the leaves that have many uses including mats, baskets, screens and roofing materials

Dates are produced in large clusters on female plants. The fruit is carried on a branched stem called a spadix

This palm seen in a local park will produce only male flowers hence no dates will be produced

This very old date palm seen in an arid part of Australia is still able to produce some fruit. The palm is now about 20 metres tall

These dates are fully grown but not quite ripe. The fruit is not yet sweet and is still very hard

These large fleshy Medjool dates are processed and ready for sale. Containing 50% sugars, the dates are extremely sweet. Each date contains a long hard seed

Date palms are an effective way to make a bold statement in the garden.

A Handsome Plant For Hobby Farm

The large dark green fronds carried on a thick and attractive trunk dominate most gardens. Unfortunately, most of these palms are of the ornamental type - the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis). The fruits are edible, but of a very coarse texture containing little flesh.

Having experienced a true date in South Australia, growing and producing sweet fleshy dates, it has always been my ambition to grow some specimens on the hobby farm. The cultivated date (Phoenix dactylifera) is also a very handsome plant, but able to produce heavy crops of extremely sweet fruit that can be stored for long periods if correctly processed.

Success with date growing requires a long, hot and dry summer, and sufficient water during winter in order to develop fleshy fruit. I expect my dates to produce fruit of a poor quality due to the relatively humid summers encountered in Melbourne, however, being such an ornamental plant, I am prepared to experiment with some well known varieties.

Places And Varieties Through Generations

Dates grow wild in parts of Arabia, Western Asia, Libya and the Sahara and over thousands of years selected varieties have been nurtured and passed on through generations. Plantations have been renewed by carefully removing offshoots or suckers produced at the base of established plants. These suckers will produce an identical plant to the parent since it is in essence a clone of the parent plant. Highly esteemed varieties such as Medjool, Barhee, Deglet Noor and Khadrawy are now grown in tissue culture laboratories and later sent to plantations throughout the world.

A Fruitful Plant

The process of producing tissue-cultured stock is expensive, but resultant plants are relatively disease free and are now produced from modern superior clones. Able to produce fruit after four years, female date palms will continue to fruit for the next sixty years. A hundred kilograms of fruit from a mature palm is not uncommon when grown under ideal conditions within commercial plantations.

For success the date palm requires full sun in a location where the temperature rarely falls below 20 degrees centigrade during the flowering and ripening period. Most importantly however, virtually no rain is required in order to avoid fruit rot. Clusters of fruit generally require an artificial cover during the ripening phase.

Artificial Pollination For Best Result

One male palm is able to produce enough pollen in order to pollinate many female plants, but since the airborne pollen does not travel far, pollen is collected and females are artificially pollinated within plantations for best results.

I have planted several named clones on the farm and expect the plants to be established and drought tolerant within a few years. As well as expecting some satisfactory fruit, the large fronds will be useful when constructing shade - houses and as windbreaks. Date seeds can also be soaked in water until soft and fed to farm animals.

Maybe I am being optimistic attempting to grow dates on the farm, but there are bound to be plenty of happy well-fed birds!