Medjool Hobby Orchard / Tissue culture

[ZPalms]

So is tissue culture for dates just to have clones of a specific palm?

[mydateplams]

You can tissue culture a lot of plants but for palms you can clone the best ones and not wait for the offshoot to grow.  One palm can make millions of explants.

So if you are starting a farm you would buy 1-2k cultured plants and they are all the same.

The money is the work it takes to harden the plant from the tube to the field. 

https://www.phoenixagrotech.com/lab/

https://www.ranchotissue.com/laboratory-tour/

[mydateplams]

Picture update. I had my tree cleaned and pollinated and de-throned. I planted 50 more Medjools. I have 150 Medjools, 40 zahedi , 5 Barhi.

About 1500 pounds of Medjool are on the way.

Just to give an idea. ita $400 one gal of pollen and $12 each tree to clean,

 

[ahosey01]

What's your water usage per palm during fruiting?

[mydateplams]

This is my rough guess. I water every other day for an hour. Each tree has one or two 10 GPH drip heads but I'm not pushing that much water.   Maybe 600-700gal every other day. That's about 3.5gal a tree. So in one month about 10,000-10,000 gallons.  This is low and will go up as it heats up here. It's still really cool out in the 80's.

I'm starting an LLC and I hope to get a small business loan for a well.  A well is around $50k

 

 

 

 

[ahosey01]

1 hour ago, mydateplams said:

This is my rough guess. I water every other day for an hour. Each tree has one or two 10 GPH drip heads but I'm not pushing that much water.   Maybe 600-700gal every other day. That's about 3.5gal a tree. So in one month about 10,000-10,000 gallons.  This is low and will go up as it heats up here. It's still really cool out in the 80's.

I'm starting an LLC and I hope to get a small business loan for a well.  A well is around $50k

 

 

 

 

Get yourself a copy of The Date Palm and its Utilization in the Southwestern States by Walter Swingle.  Dude goes into grave detail regarding the water requirements at large-scale farms in the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula.

I would expect that when your palms are mature and fruiting you should expect to use well over 100 gallons per palm per day for a quality yield.  How many males do you have?

[mydateplams]

The date palm and its utilization in the southwestern states,.pdf

I shared a copy of the book.

I just planted 5 males this week on the north side of the field. The wind blows from the West to the East. This year I bought 1 gallon of pollen @ $400.  Some of my best knowledge has been working alongside the Palmero workers that I have hired and have befriended.

I have been taught how to identify the different types of date palms, how to cut the chutes out, how to de-throne, and also how to pollinate. I did not know to mix 50% pollen with 50% baking flower.

Over the last year I have bought over 1000 bags for the dates, drying trays, different types of tools, etc, and almost bought a walk-in freezer but going to hold off till I get closer.

I have 15 acres that I have about 2.5 -3 acres now planted but my goal is to plant the rest of the 15 acres. 

My field length is 350ft wide so to irrigate 3 rows. 3 rows is 33 tress runs about $700 in tubing, emitters, etc. 

I have as attached an invoice for three rows. 

 Order Details.pdf

[ahosey01]

5 minutes ago, mydateplams said:

The date palm and its utilization in the southwestern states,.pdf 19.02 MB · 0 downloads

I shared a copy of the book.

I just planted 5 males this week on the north side of the field. The wind blows from the West to the East. This year I bought 1 gallon of pollen @ $400.  Some of my best knowledge has been working alongside the Palmero workers that I have hired and have befriended.

I have been taught how to identify the different types of date palms, how to cut the chutes out, how to de-throne, and also how to pollinate. I did not know to mix 50% pollen with 50% baking flower.

Over the last year I have bought over 1000 bags for the dates, drying trays, different types of tools, etc, and almost bought a walk-in freezer but going to hold off till I get closer.

I have 15 acres that I have about 2.5 -3 acres now planted but my goal is to plant the rest of the 15 acres. 

My field length is 350ft wide so to irrigate 3 rows. 3 rows is 33 tress runs about $700 in tubing, emitters, etc. 

I have as attached an invoice for three rows. 

  Order Details.pdf 1.04 MB · 0 downloads

I believe Arther Futterman in Indio decided early last year to sell his farm and move to Texas.  I don't know how far he ever got, but I know he generally has tons of Barhi offshoots, and a bunch of other unusual varieties (including Honey, my personal favorite).

Let me know if you want some contact info and I can PM you.

[mydateplams]

4 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

I believe Arther Futterman in Indio decided early last year to sell his farm and move to Texas.  I don't know how far he ever got, but I know he generally has tons of Barhi offshoots, and a bunch of other unusual varieties (including Honey, my personal favorite).

Let me know if you want some contact info and I can PM you.

To sell anything over 25k pounds of dates you need to be a member of the California Date Commission which they set the price per pound and also do marketing and inspections, etc. I have recently signed up to be a member but I'm still a little early

https://datesaregreat.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/4-16-24-CDC-Marketing-Agenda.pdf

He is still doing business - https://futtermanfarms.com/  here is one of his videos. 

 

 

 

[mydateplams]

11 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

I believe Arther Futterman in Indio decided early last year to sell his farm and move to Texas.  I don't know how far he ever got, but I know he generally has tons of Barhi offshoots, and a bunch of other unusual varieties (including Honey, my personal favorite).

Let me know if you want some contact info and I can PM you.

A Barhi Chute goes for $250 - 300 each. The reason for this is they do not produce as many chutes compared to a Medjool.  I just bought 5.

[mydateplams]

Hello for those who are following along here is an update.

I'm now at a 164 trees planted and about 100 are fruiting this season and have been cleaned, dethroned, pollinated. You can see the flowers go from green before they open up to a yellow then to a orange.

 It has been really windy this year and I wish I had paper bagged the bunches to protect the fruit. The wind has knocked off a lot. When they blow around and hit the fronds it weakens them and they full off.

Next step is to bag them. I have bags made just for this its like a cheesecloth withdrawal strings. 

[mydateplams]

Hello everyone. So after years of hard work, I have been able to harvest my first crop and have fresh dates for sale - Desert Sun Dates