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caliboy1994
02-23-2012, 10:14 PM
Would seeds from dates that I got from a market germinate? And would they be true to type?

sunfish
02-23-2012, 10:44 PM
Yes they will germinate

sunfish
02-23-2012, 10:50 PM
Phoenix dactylifera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_dactylifera)

Dalmatiansoap
02-24-2012, 06:54 AM
according to many it will not be true to type but most of all will germinate.

raygrogan
02-24-2012, 06:42 PM
I have some seedlings from Thoori dates that germinated easily, and will plant some Deglet seeds soon. All I am hoping for is a male to pollenate a true Deglet. And a thicket to stop rocks from falling down on me from the mountain behind the house.

Source for seeds - a Mediterranean or Middle Eastern store. They tend to have 100# bags of the Thoori (very dry dates) and a few small boxes of Deglets with seeds. My hunch is that these will be most likely to "breed true" or at least be OK if female.

You can get Medjools with seeds from any grocery store. These are tricky to harvest and process.

However, as said above, most experts say dates do not grow very true to type. Out of a row of about 30 date palms in Waikiki only 2 had pretty good dates, but I don't know the source of the seeds. Young date trees are a mess with huge thorny clumps of offshoot suckers forming. Offshoots are true to type, and date farms (like out near Salton Sea) sell them. To get a date palm with a single trunk offshoots have to be controlled for a few decades I think.