Fruit facts: Dates fruit facts

The dates fruit is a berry having a single seed surrounded by fibrous endocarp, mesocarp and pericarp.
The pericarp is the outer skin of the berry and the fleshy portion is mesocarp.
The dates fruit berry is attached at calyx to the spike-let.
A cluster of dates may hold 500-2000 berries.
When fully ripe there is dehydration of the dates and the skin gets wrinkled and is covered by a waxy film.
It takes about 200 days for it to reach maturity from the day of pollination.
There are three major stages in the growth and maturation and each stage has a name; Khalaal, Rutab and Tamr-full ripe stage.

Dates palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is a palm tree belonging to genus Phoenix.
One of the facts is that Phoenix dactylifera palm tree has a long history of cultivation and it origin is probably in North Africa or West Asia.
Phoenix dactylifera tree is a medium sized palm growing up to a height of 20-25 meters.

One of the interesting facts is that a single root system of Phoenix dactylifera tree can give rise to several palms and single palms are also not a exception.
The leaves of this palm tree, like many palm trees is pinnate and grows to a length of about 2-5 meters and has spines on the petiole.

The facts of archaeological evidence prove about cultivation of these palms dating back to 6000 years.
There is evidence of prehistoric Egyptian use of dates for preparation of wine.
Later the palms were spread to Mediterranean countries and in 17th century to California and Mexico.

Phoenix dactylifera is dioecious ie. there separate male and female palms.
Though these palm trees can be grown from the seeds only about 50% of the trees will be female fruit bearing trees.
One of the known facts is that the Phoenix dactylifera trees grown from seeds yield smaller clusters of fruit and of poor quality.
For commercial plantations cuttings are used to get good yield from tree.
The trees from the cuttings will be females and will start yielding 2-3 years earlier than those grown from seeds.
Medjool is a very popular high yielding cultivar giving large and sweet fruit.
The plantation should also have male trees as they are required for pollination.
Nowadays during pollination season male flowers are made available in local markets.
In facts in nature these palm trees are pollinated mostly by wind.
In commercial plantations of Phoenix dactylifera to get good yield pollination of tree is done manually.
The manual pollination is done by skilled persons using ladders or palm tree climbing gear.
In facts Phoenix dactylifera takes up to 3-6 years for bearing fruit and after 7 years viable yields are realised.
In a season a yield of about 100kg can be expected from a palm tree.
In facts several harvests are required as the berries do not mature at the same time.
The clusters in the palm tree have to be protected from birds and climatic conditions.

One of the interesting facts is that Egypt has extensive cover of dates fruit trees and leads the dates fruit producing countries with an annual yield of more than 1400,000 tons.
Iran with a production of about 1000,000 tons takes the second place closely followed by Saudi Arabia with 980,000 tons.
Other top ranking countries are UAE, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, China and Libya.

One of the facts is that Fig moth is a major threat to the harvested dates.
Preservation methods like fumigation, heat treatment, cold storage and irradiation are resorted to.
Dates are washed graded and cured by sun drying or dehydration.
Then they are treated for pest, glazed by running hot air and packed.
Pitting is done to get compact packets.

Many recipes are being invented for the use of different stages of maturity of the dates fruit.
Their use in salad preparations are in vogue in the Middle East.
Shredded dates are mixed with wheat or other cereal flour and numerous preparations like cake and puddings are made.
Many dates fruit recipes for sandwich spreads, party snacks and salads are now being tried out.

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