Crop of the Week: Date palm offshoots
June 02, 2012 11:04 PM
• Medjool dates are an expanding crop in Yuma County. About
4,000 acres of dates are now being cultivated, producing a crop valued
at over $25 million. In the early 1900s, date palms were brought to our
Southwestern deserts of California and Arizona because the climate in
this region was ideal for growing them.
• Date palms need a long, hot growing season. Yuma's low humidity, high summer temperatures and the relative absence of summer rain help in the production of high-quality fruit.
• Each palm is propagated from offshoots. The offshoots develop from buds at the base of the mother plant and consequently the fruit produced will be of the same quality as the mother palm. This ensures uniformity of produce.
• The life span of the date palm is divided into two distinct developmental phases: vegetative, in which buds develop into offshoots; and generative, in which buds form flowers and offshoots cease. From the time that a bud has developed into an offshoot until the time it grows outwards, it takes 18 to 36 months, with another three to four years before it reaches the desired size for its separation and planting.
• Although 20 to 30 offshoots are produced by a palm, only three or four offshoots are suitable for planting out in one year and must still go into the nursery for one to two years before field planting.
• Care and skill, acquired only by experience, is important in order to cut and remove an offshoot properly from its mother palm. The operation, usually carried out by two skilled workers, starts by irrigation several days before cutting. Soil is then dug away from the offshoot(s) using a sharp, straight-blade shovel (a ball of soil is left attached to the roots of the offshoot). A specially designed rectangular chisel is used to cut the offshoot from the mother palm. Injury must be avoided at all times as the offshoot's tender heart should never be damaged.
• In places such as Libya, some areas of Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Yemen, offshoots are not removed and continue to grow in large clumps outwards from the original mother palm. None of them produces a trunk and of course no significant yield of fruit.
• Dates are a key food source for millions living in the Middle East and North Africa. And the trees bearing them have been thriving alongside some of world's most ancient rivers for thousands of years. For many generations of Egyptians, the date has been viewed as a symbol of fertility, sprouting up almost miraculously along rivers and oases in the region's driest deserts.
• Dates are highly nutritious, with a sugar content of ripe dates about 80 percent. The remainder is a rich blend of protein, fat and mineral products including copper, sulfur, iron, magnesium and fluoric acid.
• The date palm wood and leaves provide timber and fabric for houses and fences. The leaves are used for making ropes, cord, baskets, crates and furniture. The base of the leaves and the fruit stalks are used as fuel. The fruit yields food products such as young yellow dates, dried dates, date vinegar, date chutney and date paste for bakery products.
Source: Kurt Nolte is an agriculture agent and Yuma County Cooperative Extension director. He can be reached at knolte@cals.arizona.edu or 726-3904.
• Date palms need a long, hot growing season. Yuma's low humidity, high summer temperatures and the relative absence of summer rain help in the production of high-quality fruit.
• Each palm is propagated from offshoots. The offshoots develop from buds at the base of the mother plant and consequently the fruit produced will be of the same quality as the mother palm. This ensures uniformity of produce.
• The life span of the date palm is divided into two distinct developmental phases: vegetative, in which buds develop into offshoots; and generative, in which buds form flowers and offshoots cease. From the time that a bud has developed into an offshoot until the time it grows outwards, it takes 18 to 36 months, with another three to four years before it reaches the desired size for its separation and planting.
• Although 20 to 30 offshoots are produced by a palm, only three or four offshoots are suitable for planting out in one year and must still go into the nursery for one to two years before field planting.
• Care and skill, acquired only by experience, is important in order to cut and remove an offshoot properly from its mother palm. The operation, usually carried out by two skilled workers, starts by irrigation several days before cutting. Soil is then dug away from the offshoot(s) using a sharp, straight-blade shovel (a ball of soil is left attached to the roots of the offshoot). A specially designed rectangular chisel is used to cut the offshoot from the mother palm. Injury must be avoided at all times as the offshoot's tender heart should never be damaged.
• In places such as Libya, some areas of Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Yemen, offshoots are not removed and continue to grow in large clumps outwards from the original mother palm. None of them produces a trunk and of course no significant yield of fruit.
• Dates are a key food source for millions living in the Middle East and North Africa. And the trees bearing them have been thriving alongside some of world's most ancient rivers for thousands of years. For many generations of Egyptians, the date has been viewed as a symbol of fertility, sprouting up almost miraculously along rivers and oases in the region's driest deserts.
• Dates are highly nutritious, with a sugar content of ripe dates about 80 percent. The remainder is a rich blend of protein, fat and mineral products including copper, sulfur, iron, magnesium and fluoric acid.
• The date palm wood and leaves provide timber and fabric for houses and fences. The leaves are used for making ropes, cord, baskets, crates and furniture. The base of the leaves and the fruit stalks are used as fuel. The fruit yields food products such as young yellow dates, dried dates, date vinegar, date chutney and date paste for bakery products.
Source: Kurt Nolte is an agriculture agent and Yuma County Cooperative Extension director. He can be reached at knolte@cals.arizona.edu or 726-3904.
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