Date palms

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ashtondav
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Date palms

Postby ashtondav » Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:43 pm

Seen lots of date palms with big bunches of yellow gold dates (I assume). Do they ever get cropable or edible, and if so when?

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country boy
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Re: Date palms

Postby country boy » Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:33 pm

More likely to be Phoenix Canariensis , or The Canary Island Palm. They are very common around here although many have been devastated by the Red Palm Beetle. The seeds are just a bit bigger than a thumb nail. Dates tend to be bigger.

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Flexo
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Re: Date palms

Postby Flexo » Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:14 pm

I would say both dactifylera and sylvestris are slightly more common than canariensis here on the mainland. However, only a non-professional would plant female dates in landscape situations as the maintenance with cleaning up after them are quite high.

El Cid
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Re: Date palms

Postby El Cid » Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:51 pm

When you buy a 1m palm, how do you know what sex it is?

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ashtondav
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Re: Date palms

Postby ashtondav » Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:25 pm

Look down under :shock:

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Re: Date palms

Postby swerve » Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:57 am

I've grown loads of date palms from shop bought dates. Will they fruit I don't know.
It always seems imposible until its done. Nelson Mandela

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Flexo
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Re: Date palms

Postby Flexo » Sun Oct 22, 2017 6:36 pm

El Cid wrote:When you buy a 1m palm, how do you know what sex it is?

Sid
There is a patented tech for seedling stage:
https://news.webindia123.com/news/artic ... 19615.html

SCAR markers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28755225

Otw, you have to wait until flowering which takes place in 4-5 years after germination or so.

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country boy
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Re: Date palms

Postby country boy » Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:00 pm

Well....you learn something every day! If only I could understand it I'd be well away! ;-))

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Re: Date palms

Postby Gasman » Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:01 pm

Swerve - you will have to wait and see - when bought from reputable growers/nurseries they will always give you a pair, male and female, if you do want to have a crop. So if you are growing your own you may not have males plus females .... wait and see. On the other hand, as Flexo says they do cause a bit of a mess with flower remnants falling off, then the dates coming to earth, depending how high they are ...and some people actually cut off the flowers from both males and females to avoid the mess - I must say that our canary palms, one male, one female, only produced very small dates which though sweet and tasty were not worth the effort of getting the bit of flesh of the comparatively big stone.
AshtonDave - The ones they grow for eating dates must be a better variety than these ornamental ones - such as those in the famous palmeria at Elche. Yes they can grow big ones in Spain!
Also we have noticed locally that they cultivate the palmitos which you see growing wild in the scrub at low level - if you train them by cutting off the lower branches each year, they will grow up to be a mini palm tree after several years!! The fruit are much prized for animal food, but humans like them too ... Again, I believe you need a male one and a female one ..

El Cid
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Re: Date palms

Postby El Cid » Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:10 pm

Gasman wrote: as Flexo says they do cause a bit of a mess with flower remnants falling off, then the dates coming to earth, depending how high they are ...and some people actually cut off the flowers from both males and females to avoid the mess - I
I have a couple of large Washingtonian palms which don’t have dates but loads of small flowers and ball bearing sized fruit.

We had them pruned back in May to remove the flowering shoots but they still produced another smaller batch shortly afterwords which are now making a real mess as they fall off all over the terrace and into the pool.

What is really annoying is that they are throwing out huge new flower shots now!

They look fabulous but they are fast becoming an expensive liability.

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Flexo
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Re: Date palms

Postby Flexo » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:38 pm

Palm trees are high maintenance and Washingtonias in particular are among the most troublesome unless you want them to keep the beards and fruit.


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