BEARING AND RIPENING DATES 331 



Bearing Age of the Date. There is much difference in the ages 

 at which seedlings have come in fruit in the hands of different 

 growers. Fruit has been reported on seedlings six years old and 

 even on plants four years from the seed. Such early maturity must 

 not, however, be generally expected. 



Blooming of the Date. The date palm is dioecious, and, its 

 staminate (male) and pistillate (female) blooms appearing on 

 different trees, it requires the association of the two for perfect 

 fruiting. Growing plants from seed, as already stated, leaves the 

 grower in doubt as to the sex of his plants until they bloom. 

 Usually one obtains a large preponderance of male plants. In 

 propagating from suckers the new tree is of the same sex as the 

 parent. It is advised to have about one male to twenty female trees. 

 The pollen can be transported long distances and maintains its 

 vitality for a long time. 



Artificial fertilization of the bloom of the bearing palm has been 

 found of advantage in this State and was probably first practiced 

 by J. R. Wolfskill. Though the staminate tree was but a few feet 

 away from the pistillate, the male bloom was broken in pieces and 

 hung to the leaves of the female tree near to the pistillate flowers. 

 It was found that the parts of the date cluster which are nearest to 

 the suspended male blooms have more perfect fruit than the more 

 distant parts. Other California date growers have had similar 

 experience. 



Date palms bloom from March to May, and the fruit ripens from 

 August to November. 



Ripening the Date. Dr. A. E. Vinson reports that the Arizona 

 Experiment Station has demonstrated that by pasteurization . or 

 incubation of the ripe fruit, it is freed of the obnoxious insects that 

 naturally infest the date. In pasteurizing, the temperature is raised 

 sufficiently to destroy all insect eggs and at the same time to 

 improve the keeping quality of the fresh fruit by checking fermenta- 

 tion. The date, heated after it has been ripened at natural tempera- 

 tures, becomes more palatable than the raw material and does not 

 cloy the appetite so quickly. These improvements alone have 

 greatly extended the possibilities of marketing the fresh fruit and 

 of its becoming a staple among the people of this country. It is 

 anticipated by some growers that seedling varieties can be devel- 

 oped which will not require artificial ripening, but artificial ripening 

 by holding the fruit in a closed apartment at a temperature of 100 to 

 110 degrees Fahr. is regularly practiced. The length of exposure to 

 heat depends upon the condition of the fruit as it comes from the 

 trees, and is a matter of experience and judgment. 



Fumigation with bisulphide vapor to free packed dates from 

 insects is also employed both by the California Date Association and 

 by private growers. An apparatus for fumigating in vacuo is being 

 very successfully used. 



Pruning. The pruning of bearing palms should consist merely 

 in the removal of old leaves, up to the fruit stem of the former 



