The Date palm is either a male plant or female plant. In March or April  Date palms start to flower. Each palm forms about 10-15 large golden-brown flower pods.

When mature, the pop splits wide open and exposes the flowers. One pod can encase from 5000 to 10000 flowers.

Naturally in wild,  the Date palm is pollinated by wind. In date cultivation it is hard to rely on wind natural pollination. Also for this process to occur it had to be an equal ratio of male to female plants. It could never be fully productive because only female Date palms produce dates, and one male Date palm can pollinate about 50 females. That’s why farmers usually have one male and fifty females planted per acre and use manual pollination which is very efficient and productive.

Male flowers come out 2-3 weeks before female flowers. They come out on long, large stems weighing 20 pounds each. Once the male pods open, they are cut out of the trees and hung upside down to dry. Once they have dried, pollen is stored  in a cool place  and ready to be used for pollination. The pollen has to be placed inside female flowers. Each female has to be pollinated at least twice. Too little pollen and you won’t get enough dates.

After pollination female date palms  begin to form dates. By mid May you can see unmature, developing dates.

Return to Date Palm  main page.