We May Be Getting Dates!

We both enjoy fresh dates (the fruit!), but rarely buy them due to their cost. A little over 3 years ago, my wife spotted a nearly-dead Date Palm at Lowe's, on their "reduced" pile. It was little taller than a foot or so, about 2" diameter at the trunk, a couple of wind-beaten fronds still clinging to life. I planted it in front of our house, took care to fertilize and water it properly, and in a few months, it perked up. Today, it is well over 6 feet high! When I got it, I was telling my nephew about it. His reaction was that I'll be dead before I see any dates! A guy down the road has a big Date Palm, which each season produces huge clusters of fruit, which hang down due to their great weight, suspended by rope-like, not sure what to call them, structures. I am guessing each cluster when ripe must weigh about 50 lbs, and there are 6, 7, or more, clusters. We have never been close enough to see just how the "fruit" begins to be formed, as palm trees grow from the center outward.

A few weeks ago, I noticed unusual, different, "fronds" forming on our tree! They were wider, had no pointy spines at all, looked like big pods, elongating at they grew. Yesterday, one burst open! My excitement at first frightened my wife, who thought I had finally gotten the BIG "H". All the various kinds of palms we see form seed clusters, of one kind or another. These seem to be just that. Here's how they look:



Today, three pods are burst open, revealing a multitude of seeds which we think become dates.


Another close-up.


Going price for dates around here is ten to twelve dollars a pound. They are an important commercial crop centered mainly down around Yuma, as far as AZ is concerned, while a lot come from California, of course. Aside from tasting delicious, dates have quite good nutritional value, too.
Frank

 

@Frank Sanoica , Wow! They look great. Please keep showing us how your tree progresses. I've never seen date palms grow. But I do love them. I eat about a pound of dried dates a week in place of having pastries or other sweets. They are about $7.50 a pound, but I can't eat much at a time, and three or four is all I need, so the cost is worth it.

 

In 2010, we decided to "winter" in Arizona, along the Colorado River, across from Laughlin, Nevada. During our travels thereabouts, we spotted an old guy selling produce, out of his pickup; he had a travel trailer nearby, and might have been "one of us snowbirds". What caught our eye was DATES! Big boxes of them! I think I bought about 40 lbs., a crateful, intent on "preserving" them via alcoholic fermentation. our rented condo had limited freezer space in the fridge.

As we proceeded to eat them, I thought, why not save some of these pits being thrown away, and plant them? Nah, couldn't possibly grow. I saved them, anyway. Planted a bunch, later, after they were good and dried out. The two guys below, I grew from pits, gradually they poked up through the soil in the yogurt cup I had used! One skinny frond appeared at a time, then at about a foot high, a second began forming from below, as the tiny plant formed the "trunk", which eventually became these two:






Th

They are about 2 years old now, and flourishing. Make no mistake about palm trees, in general, regarding their tenaciousness: each "leaf" on a frond ends in a deadly-sharp point, capable of (and often doing so) inflicting serious pain if you blunder into one. Palms are nearly as difficult to "kill" as cactus. An uprooted cactus will often lie on the ground for months, looking "dead", but gradually pushing a tendril or two downwards into the earth, and next thing you know, a cactus is growing there again! The native plants around here amaze us with their ability to withstand day after day of blazing heat, sometimes for several months without a single drop of water, then, after a Spring "rainstorm" of perhaps 1/10 inch of rain, go on to flower-out, producing beautiful petals to be amazed over, lasting a week or two at most, then the plant "dies", seemingly, but returns with another similar performance a year later!

It remains to be seen whether these two palms will or can produce fruit. We wonder whether the GMO crowd has bothered to do their "magic" with dates. Fact that the pits produced new plants suggests "no". We live in a world of "control" regrettably, AFAIC. Frank

 

I always pass a home fruit stand when I take my shortcut through the orchards on ave. 9 going to my daughter's.

Think maybe I'll stop on my way back on Tuesday. I do remember he always had figs.

You should see all the oranges on the ground sometimes from the trees, almost on the road but I think it's illegal to pick them up because I never see anyone getting them.

 

Your little trees look good. When I was a young man (get ready), I was a "fresh" date.

 

Frank we love dates too. I eat my fill of them when I visit my daughter as she always has some in her kitchen. Many years ago we went on a bus tour in Palm Springs and they took us to a date farm (orchard, grove?) and we bought date milk shakes. They were pretty good and I'm sure zero calories. My husband is always planting something around here but I doubt dates would grow. We have almonds, figs, apricots and lemons. What I'd really like is an avocado tree. Your date trees are beautiful. Keep updating us with the pics like Ina said.

 

@Linda Binning , you live in CA. And I'm sure you've driven through all the orchards or at least some of them.

What happens to all the oranges etc on the ground by the road, do you know?

 

Chrissy we can't go into any town or city from here without going through roads with orange or lemon groves on both sides of us. The reason they let the fruit rot on the ground is because they have/had so much trouble with people stealing both off the trees and from the ground, then taking them to LA or San Fransisco (or anywhere really) to sell. Often those people waving bags of oranges at a stop light are peddling stolen fruit. The last few years the growers have had to put up fences, release guard dogs and whatever to try and protect their crops. I really think twice now when I have my husband pull off the road and I run a few trees back into a grove to pee on my way to or from town. I never take even one orange though. We pay $5 a bag for the wonderful Cara-Cara red flesh oranges from a local fruit stand. An elderly couple have it in front of their home and usually one of them will run out to get the $ as people keep stealing the oranges from the stand. They can't take the cash box as it's bolted down. It's almost time for the "Blossom Trail Festival" drive. You should go on it if you can, I think it starts at Sanger.

 

Thanks Linda, I've always wanted to know the reason I see all that fruit just lying there. I've never stopped but now that you said a dog might come after me....I will definitely not stop.

I have an orchard just outside of my subdivision. It used to be plums but for some reason a few years ago all the trees were removed and new ones planted and I think they are some type of nut.

 

Lol, Yvonne. Lots of nuts here, all varieties. Fruit too.

 

Years ago we had a neighbor who had a wonderful Hass Avocado tree up by the front of his property. He had a sign that said, "Pick a few and enjoy, don't take the others folks share". He gave us avocado's by the large bag.

 

That was nice of him. Even though we grow them here too, they are never less than $1 for one.

 

When I was a kid, I lived in Calavo Gardens in the Mt. Helix area of San Diego county. We had a two acre grove and belonged to the association. I used to go into the grove pick a perfect avocado and slice it, put it between two slices of fresh bread and gobble it up. We had some theft but because there were so many groves, it was minimal.