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Farmers have date with destiny
Tue, 25 October 2016
Hor Kimsay

A Thai agricultural company will work with a local firm to introduce commercial date palm cultivation to the Kingdom, which it claims can generate more profits for farmers than pepper and other cash crops, and for which it has already lined up buyers.

Chiang Mai-based Daily Green Co Ltd inked a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia’s Kheng Lay Co Ltd yesterday that outlines a partnership plan to educate Cambodian farmers on the commercial benefits of date palm cultivation, and supply seeds, saplings and technical support to farmers who choose to grow the cash crop.

Kheng Chantha, owner of Kheng Lay, said he has successfully grown date palms on a 10-hectare experimental farm in Kandal province, and the fruit-bearing variety of palm grows well in Cambodia and could provide a supplementary source of income for rural families.

He said the partnership agreement will see Daily Green responsible for supplying seeds and saplings to Kheng Lay, which will distribute them to local farmers and support their date production with technical advice and help in securing supplier contracts. The two companies will look to enlist local farmers to grow date palms on 50,000 hectares in the coming five years...
Read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/f ... te-destiny

One can only wish this courageous pioneering venture well.

Date palms need dry sunshine (as well as thirstily consuming lots of water) to produce fruit of any quality. Those interested can check this on Wikipedia.

The date palm trees in Sakai and similar localities in southern Japan are delightful ornamentals, NOT fruit-bearers - like the date palms in Torquay
in the south of England.

There*s a place in Spain called Elche, where a distilled beverage is made from dates, but then again a distilled beverage can be made from almost anything.

how long to harvest your dates from planting? 3 years? so by that time the demand may not be there anymore

just sayin

Some - not all - of the Tunisian dates bought from LUCKY MALL in Siem Reap two weeks ago are beginning to sprout.

1 Eat dates, put stones in water
2 Wash stones thoroughly in onsen-hot water (NOT boiling)
3 Immerse stones for 6-12 hours in water with 3-5% hydrogen peroxide
4 Soak stones in sugar-sticky water for 6-12 hours
5 Rinse stones in clean water and arrange in layers carefully between Kleenex sheets in a clear Tupperware container.
6 Moisten paper and close the lid. Check in about 2-3 weeks.
7 When roots are a few cm long = quarter inch to half inch, plant them in potting compost in peat pots or similar

ALL THIS IS BETTER EXPLAINED BY SMART PEOPLE ON *YOUTUBE*

A woman in Israel has resuscitated date stones found in Roman-era tombs.

Again, there's a guy on *YOUTUBE* who resuscitated several marijuana
seeds his Uncle Ted brought back from Vietnam in 1973 and totally forgot all about.

That's pretty fast.

How long before the first harvest?

First harvest is a minimum decade from planting so far as I know.

Here is the wise woman of Arava:

One of the problems growers will encounter is that date palms are diecious and must be hand pollinated. For more info : http://www.dateland.com/how-are-dates-grown/

At my age this could be problematic. Don't know of I will live long enough for them to flower and not certain I'll be able to climb them.

The dateland site is enormously interesting & informative, if slightly misleading in one minor detail.

Ornamental date palms can, and do, endure insufferably high coastal humidity (in Dammam, Yanbu, Jeddah and Muscat - to name just a tiny handful of
places which are like a sauna on a hot and humid day) but PRODUCTIVE date palms require lower humidity and enormous quantities of water to drink.

Date palms can, and do, endure occasional chilly winters in Torquay on the English coast and can cope with snow for weeks on end in Morocco and Algeria.

Green Date-Grower in Cambodia Eyes Indonesian Market
March 2, 2017

There are 700 species of dates in the world, according to Leng Mong Neath, a real estate broker and would-be date farmer. Of these, only about 20 bear edible fruit. And of these 20 edible species, only two can grow in Cambodia.

Neither of these two varieties—known as KL1 and Barhi—produce the sweet, brown sticky fruit used to sweeten pastries and break Ramadan fasts in the Middle East. Cambodia doesn’t get hot enough for that, Mr. Neath said—only temperatures consistently over 41 degrees Celsius can sun-dry dates on the tree.

Instead, the date palms that can grow in Cambodia produce fresh dates—crisp, greenish and far less sweet than their dried Arabian cousins.

But none of this, not least the climate and the fact that he has no previous experience in the agricultural industry, is going to stop Mr. Neath on his quest to become Cambodia’s first successful date farmer...
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/ ... et-126005/