Need help with dates on palm!

[Victor G.]

Hi everyone, we have these (pretty neglected) date palm growing on the sidewalk here in Athens, Greece.

Passed by today and the dates are now slowly turning yellow (some branches are already fully yellow, some others are almost completely green).

These palms receive pretty much no irrigation, no fertilizer and they're not hand pollinated as is usual with date palms. So I have these two questions:

1) When are the dates ready to pick? As they turn yellow or do I have to wait more?
2) With proper care (water, fertilizer), could these dates have ripended sooner?

Wer're zone 9b/10a here and we're going to get plenty of sunshine and warm (not hot) temps, at least for the rest of October.

Thanks a lot!! Victor

[aztropic]

Dates WILL NOT ripen if picked yellow. If you wanted to plan on collecting them for consumption,they need to be bagged,or picked daily,as you will be fighting bugs and birds for every exposed ripe date.

Care variations make no difference as to when dates will ripen. Different species ripen at different times. I have 2 different named species. 'medjool',  ripens a full month before 'zahidi' under the exact same conditions. Very dry conditions,and high heat are required to get decent fruit for a month before ripening. If you get any rain or lower temps,the fruit will be of poor quality.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Victor G.]

13 hours ago, aztropic said:

Dates WILL NOT ripen if picked yellow. If you wanted to plan on collecting them for consumption,they need to be bagged,or picked daily,as you will be fighting bugs and birds for every exposed ripe date.

Care variations make no difference as to when dates will ripen. Different species ripen at different times. I have 2 different named species. 'medjool',  ripens a full month before 'zahidi' under the exact same conditions. Very dry conditions,and high heat are required to get decent fruit for a month before ripening. If you get any rain or lower temps,the fruit will be of poor quality.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

Τhanks for the reply! I only have one question on your statement "Dates WILL NOT ripen if picked yellow"

Do you mean that they have to be picked while still green, or after the yellowing? When do you know that they're ready to pick?

Thanks again!

[aztropic]

After the dates turn from green to yellow,over the next month or 2,you will notice them starting to turn brown gradually from the tip,towards the stem, and maybe dry up a little.You have to wait till the date turns brown by itself, on the tree, before picking it. Bugs and birds will also be watching for this color change,and will attack the fruit the minute they notice it. That is why it is easiest to bag each bunch, once they start turning yellow. If you were to pick the bunch yellow, before they turn brown on their own,the yellow fruit would just dry up,and remain hard and bitter,without ever sweetening up.

By the looks of your situation,these are city owned trees that you probably can not bag. Since each tree produces thousands of dates,there will inevitably be some on the ground that escape bird and bug damage that you could gather,clean,and eat,if they are a good variety to begin with.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Victor G.]

Good information, thanks a lot!!

I have some young date palms myself, that's why I'm interested.

There's nothing I can do for the city owned plants (although in Greece nobody would mind) but I hope in the future I can have dates of my own!

Thanks again!

[aztropic]

Here is a pic of the progression of date ripening. Only #4,and more preferably #5 could be eaten and enjoyed. Even if picked like #3,the rest of the date absolutely WILL NOT ripen.

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona

 

 

[Victor G.]

21 minutes ago, aztropic said:

Here is a pic of the progression of date ripening. Only #4,and more preferably #5 could be eaten and enjoyed. Even if picked like #3,the rest of the date absolutely WILL NOT ripen.

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona

 

 

Awesome, that's very helpful! Could you tell me about when they reach stage 4 and 5 over there? Would it be the middle of September or later? And do you hand-pollinate them or let nature do it's work?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but so far nobody could tell me much on the subject..

Thanks a million!

[aztropic]

Here are some bagged dates on the tree, then a picture showing the harvest of bagged dates. Without bagging, all the dates would be shredded by birds,then infested with bugs.

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona

[aztropic]

2 minutes ago, Victor G. said:

Awesome, that's very helpful! Could you tell me about when they reach stage 4 and 5 over there? Would it be the middle of September or later? And do you hand-pollinate them or let nature do it's work?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but so far nobody could tell me much on the subject..

Thanks a million!

This picture of ripening progression was just taken right now. These are "medjool" variety dates. Our "'zahidi'" variety dates should be ripening up in another month.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Victor G.]

2 minutes ago, aztropic said:

This picture of ripening progression was just taken right now. These are "medjool" variety dates. Our "'zahidi'" variety dates should be ripening up in another month.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

Understood. I have no idea what variety I found on the street

Thanks a lot for the help, really!

[aztropic]

If you have any type male date palm in the area flowering at the same time the female trees are ready,you don't need to do anything. If you want to guarantee your future harvest,you should hand pollinate.

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona

[Victor G.]

@ego"Sounds like our conditions here are not too far from those. We do get warm weather 8 months per year, plenty of sunshine and the climate is quite dry, and as for water you can just provide that from a tap. How old are your trees?"

Mine are about 2 years old not, but like everything else there they grow sooo slowly...
I give them plenty of water, fertilize them every now and then and the place has a very good amount of sunshine, I just don't get why they're growing so slowly. The soil must really be terrible there.

Here's a picture of one (out of seven) of my date palms. This was in August 2021, so it was one and a half years old then. I've seen date palm of the same age which are twice the size, but what can we do? Every soil and enviroment have different attributes.

As for the dryness, I don't mean precipitation, but humidity (sorry I didn't describe it well).
To produce the highest quality of dates the humidity needs to be around 30-40%, which is unrealistic at our proximity to the sea.

Still don't be discouraged! I believe we can grow dates (from what I've seen). The palms look amazing too; much better than the Canary in my opinion

Edited March 18, 2022 by Victor G.