Growing date palms?

[artichoke]

Emptying my kitchen waste compost dalek a few weeks ago, I was surprised to find a number of germinated date stones. We now have about 8 tiny plants with developing green leaves. I am not for one moment expecting to grow fruit, but I might have uses for mature leaves.

Does anyone know if they can be left outside in winter? Has anyone else grown date palms to any size outside? These are dactylifera of course, not canariensis.

[artichoke]

[Jayb]

I haven't got one, but there are several in the area and in a sheltered site they get quite tall. I'm not sure how well they might do 'up North'. Guess they would need protection for the first couple of years.

[artichoke]

That's interesting, thanks. We are in Sussex. Good point about protection until they mature a bit. I once worked in Oman where certain landscapes were punctuated by rather scruffy bushes of self sown dates, so I'm glad to hear of some that have risen up on a stem near you. The leaves were considered very useful in Oman and I illustrated some of the uses in a book about the plants of Dhofar.

[daveylamp993]

WOW . . . That's great news for you,I have been trying to grow these for the last 2 years without success,maybe I will just put them in my compost bin and hope for the best,Let us know how they get on please

[artichoke]

These must have been from a box of dates I bought for Christmas, so they would have been in the bin for about 8 months, and each had a long root and a very pale leaf which greened up after a few days in the fresh air. At the moment they are in a deep pot of damp compost outside, with the single leaf steadily developing.

They were really deep down inside the bin with about 3 foot of old cabbage leaves and other kitchen rubbish on top of them, plus a great mass of so-called compostable plastic packaging under them which had not bio-degraded at all after over a year......

I have found them germinated in the compost before (also avocado pears and squashes) but didn't bother to pot them up until this year.

I read on the internet that date stones are quite easy to germinate in damp paper in a plastic container, and planted into compost when things start to happen. Has that not worked for you?

[ed dibbles]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there is a world of difference between the edible date palm which is not at all hardy and will not tolerate frost and the ornamental canary date palm that you see planted in sheltered spots and will take down to -6C or so.

Your chitted date stones could make useful house plants for a while, though to get fruit you need one male plant to around 50 female.

In hot countries male date palm flower spikes are sold in markets especially for pollination purposes.

[daveylamp993]

These must have been from a box of dates I bought for Christmas, so they would have been in the bin for about 8 months, and each had a long root and a very pale leaf which greened up after a few days in the fresh air. At the moment they are in a deep pot of damp compost outside, with the single leaf steadily developing.

They were really deep down inside the bin with about 3 foot of old cabbage leaves and other kitchen rubbish on top of them, plus a great mass of so-called compostable plastic packaging under them which had not bio-degraded at all after over a year......

I have found them germinated in the compost before (also avocado pears and squashes) but didn't bother to pot them up until this year.

I read on the internet that date stones are quite easy to germinate in damp paper in a plastic container, and planted into compost when things start to happen. Has that not worked for you?

I have tried many different ways to get them to germinate with no success at all,i will try the damp paper trick again to see in anything happens,if not I will stick to growing tomatoes,cucumbers and a bit of veg.

[goodlife]

I once germinated handful of date seeds with very good success rate by placing them into damp compost into plastic bag and this bag was placed under the fish tank hood on shelf where they were in constantly warm and humid conditions. They only took some weeks to germinate!

[gavinjconway]

They are a desert / dry climate plant and would probably not grow here. Or maybe if they do grow under sheltered conditions they will take many years to bear fruit..