Growing Date Palms From Seeds
Greeker’s Medjool Male Date Palm
Back in 2014, I planted twelve date stones, four sprouted, of which two gave up the ghost, leaving me with two likely – looking specimens, on which I showered lots of tender loving care, they repaid my nurturing by producing, six years later, two, good sized, healthy date palm trees.
Young date palms
The date stones I planted, saved from dates I had bought from our local green grocer, Nikos, were of the top quality, Medjool (scientific name Phoenix dactylifera: Arecaceae) variety, king of the dates.
Medjool dates
The Medjool date palm is one of the world’s oldest trees, a holy symbol, mentioned in the Bible, Quran and other religious books, records show it was grown in Egypt in the fifth century B.C. as well as in Mesopotamia (Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria), the Indus Valley (Pakistan), the Nile Valley (Africa) and the Mediterranean River (Italy, Greece, Palestine and Jordan).
The tree, which grows in dry, desert regions throughout the world, has, in Arab countries become a base of their cultures and has been called “the life tree” which provides many necessities: food, medicine, fuel, shelter and materials for building, weaving and basket making. Dates have become a symbol of fertility and hospitality in many countries.
Date Palms in Behbahan, Iran
Dates are dioacious which means there is a male and female palm and until the trees developed flowers, I had no way of knowing what the gender of my date palms were.
Well, a couple of days ago, I noticed a strange, large yellow – brown, tongue, or sword – like protrusion had appeared, as if out of nowhere, on one of my date palms.
After a bit of research, it turns out, this is a flower pod, which is actually called ‘spathi’, the Greek word for sword.
More research informed me, the particular flower, which would burst forth from the pod, would specify the plant’s gender, how exciting!
Female (left) and male (right) date palm flowers
I was determined to keep my eye on this pod, eager to learn what my first born date palm was to be, a boy or a girl.
The day after discovering the pod, (I have no idea how long it had already been there), I was busy, I forgot to check it but laying in bed that night, thought to myself; ‘I’m sure it won’t open for days’.
I couldn’t have been more wrong, first thing this morning, I received the news, and ‘it’s a boy’!
Male date palm flower
I am the proud mummy of a male date palm tree!
At some point yesterday, the pod had burst open, revealing a mass of tiny white, fluffy – looking flowers, which, through my previous internet scrolling, I knew to be male.
Male date palm flower
My other date palm has no sign, as yet, of any flower pod; I shall be keeping my eye on it, and hoping for a little sister for palm tree number one, in the meantime, I am thinking of what to name them!
Date palm number 2, as yet, gender unknown
If palm number two turns out to be a girl, well then, I have a chance of it eventually bearing fruit, which may involve me pollinating her with a feather duster, with pollen taken from the male flower, so says my friend H, who carried out these goings on with her father’s tomato plants.
Female date palm flower
Medjool date trees usually start producing fruit at 4-8 years old and need 7 to 8 months to ripen in around mid September and October.
Fun and games ahead maybe!
I wonder, if I do eventually have dates from my date palm trees, does that make me a date palm granny?
How to plant Date seeds/stones in the correct way
As I was ploughing through the pages of Google, not only did I discover how to tell the sex of a date palm, something we all want to be able to do, right?, I discovered I had planted my date stones in entirely the wrong way, a lesson to me, ask first, act later, not the other way around but hey, you have to take risks in life, anyway, they grew, well, two out of twelve did, maybe I would have had a larger date palm family if I had done some proper family planning!
Apparently, according to snapguide. Com, this is how to do it:
1. Save some of the seeds by removing them from the center of the dates.
2. Place your date seeds in a small dish covered with cool water. Soak them for one week, changing the water at least once a day to keep mold from forming.
3., After soaking your seeds for a week, rinse them well and place in a damp (not dripping) paper towel and fold the towel over so they are sandwiched between the two halves.
Propagating date seeds/stone. Photo by Snapquide
4. Place towel into a plastic bag, seal and place in a warm place.
Soon, you will see roots beginning to appear! (It may take a few weeks, so be patient with them).
Propagating date seeds/stone. Photo by Snapguide
5. Plant your sprouted seeds in potting soil. Keep the soil damp, covered with plastic and in a warm place until leaves appear.
Here’s how Greeker planted date seeds/stones:
1. I ate a lot of dates
2. Saved the stones
3. Gave them a quick wash
4. Planted them in a pot of soil, about 1 cm under the surface
5. Watered them when they dried out and then waited
6. Transferred the survivors into two pots
Watch this space for further news on the growth and gender of any new additions Greeker’s date palm family!
