Question
QUESTION: dear sir/madam!
i want to ask about my 1st experience that is:
about 2 years back i planted some seeds in pot which now became leaves of about 7-8 inches each..now i hv seperated them in seperate pots...bt sumone told me that they will now give fruit as they have some male nd female problem...sir! can u plz guide me what to do and about how many years they will take to become tree nd will give fruit??
thx
regards

ANSWER: Hi Ahsan,
Thanx for your question.  If you are talking about edible date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, it will take 5-7 years from seed for the first fruiting and 7-10 years for normal harvests.  This is if you grow the plant from seed.  Commercial growers make cuttings from the palm trees and begin harvesting in 3-5 years with normal harvests in 5-8 years.  The trees are dioecious meaning that there are male trees and female trees.  Both sexes are necessary in order to produce fruit.  The female tree is the tree that produces the fruit.  You can sometimes buy the male flowers at the market and people often pollinate their own date palms.  The commercial growers more often than not, hand pollinate because one male tree can pollinate up to 90 female trees.  The palm trees need to be planted out in the garden or farm or kept in separate tubs.  Keep them watered but well drained and amend the soil with well-composted cattle or horse manure.  Only use manure of cow, sheep, goat or horse.  Other manures might have harmful bacteria.  I hope this helps.
Tom

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QUESTION: Dear sir Tom!
i m highly obliged by ur answer...
let me tell u in detail plz....infact about 2 years back i got sum good dates from saudi arabia after eating them i thought why not to try growing them myself...so instead of throughing the seeds i planted them in a pot now i dont know wheather they r PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA or not...after few months i planted 15 more seeds which r also now 15 leaves of 7-8 inches too..so i have total of about 23 plants now...sir can u plz tell me how come they will become tree in 2-3 year time if in 2 years they r only leaves of 7-8 inches??? and i dnt want to mix the breed of that date so is it possible that they themself will give fruit without any crossing or pollination..          plz guide me sir....thx alot
regards

Answer
Hi Ahsan,
Thanx for the additional information.  The plants you have may not be Phoenix dactylifera.  I was just guessing.  There are numerous varities of date palms.  I'm really not a palm tree expert but here is a website you can use that I think you will find helpful.

http://www.sunpalmtrees.com/
http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/006/Y4360E/y4360e09.htm

If these sites don't help you, contact me again and I will do more research.

I hope this helps.


Tom