Dates are growing day by day in slowly commercial cultivation. These dates are the fruits of good nutrition and are a rich source of calcium, sugar, iron, potassium and nicotinic acid. Iran is the number one date manufacturer and exporter.
Dates farming requires essential equipment, which plays a major role in agro-processing. Hence, equipment, harvesters, and tractors are the main in cultivating dates. Hence, we recommend the Sonalika 60 tractor in this farming.
Process of Dates Farming in India
Here below, you can get the essential information that can be very helpful for date cultivation.
Dates Farming – Climate Requirement
Dates require plenty of sunshine and low relative humidity for their best growth. This fruit takes a long time with abundant sunshine, free frost on winter days and temperatures at night. It does not prefer rain, especially during fruit and flowering sets.
Dates Farming – Soil Requirement
Dates need deep loam soil with pH levels 8.0 to 10.0 well-drained. You should use soil that is capable of holding moisture. Farmers can grow the soil in alkaline soils and lower yield saline. They should use soil free of calcium carbonate and should have no hardpan at least up to 2.5 meters.
Dates Farming – Propagation Requirement
Dates require propagation in farming. However, farmers do not like seed propagation, reducing fruits’ quality, and more than half of these fruits can be male-free.
Farmers should remove the sucker from mother palm trees. During the fourth and tenth of its life, you can obtain the 9 – 20 offshoots of 9 t-15 kg in the process. However, this process is a very slow multiplication process, so this method is an obstacle to date farming.
Although the technique of tissue culture is a standardized procedure, its commercial use remains limited. Before removing the sucker, the outer leaves of the date should be cut to 2/3 of their length, and the inner leaves should be cut in half, keeping the stalks of the older leaves together to protect and develop the root system well.
Dates Farming – Land Preparation & Planting
Since date palm trees are perennial and have a long life of about 50 years, adequate spacing between plants is important. Therefore, the square planting method is followed in date palm cultivation, and in this process, a distance of 8 meters maintain between the rows for proper intercultural operation and growth. At cultivated dates, the plant density is about 160 plants per hectare of land, and 10% of these must be male offshoots to provide sufficient pollen-grain since the dates are each other’s fruit.
Foremost, farmers should plough the selected field 2 to 3 times till the soil is finely tilled. Then, to prepare for planting during the rainy season, make pits of length 1 meter during summer. They should keep these pits open for about 2 weeks, and then they cover them with well-rotted manure and field soil. The ideal time for planting is from July 7 to July.
Dates Farming – Intercropping
Farmers can gain extra income if the field has an irrigation facility by offering intercrops between the dates of palm plants. Grow the intercrops such as tomatoes, papaya, pomegranate, green gram, black gram, beans and lentils etc. In the case of intercrop, you need ample water and fertilizers.
Dates Farming – Irrigation
Dates require more water, although they can tolerate prolonged periods of dryness and drought. It prefers constant soil moisture but is prone to waterlog. Farmers do not require water during the rainy season, and in case of heavy rain irrigation floods, water must drain out as it can damage the planting.
Therefore, They require 5 to 6 irrigations annually in areas with high water levels where regular irrigation is required after planting. Water quality depends on the moisture-holding capacity of the soil and climatic conditions. Mulching is the best way to retain soil moisture, so you can avoid weed growth. Once offshoots emerge, irrigation rates can be reduced.
Fruit Thinning and Regulating Leaf Number
Due to its dioecious type, date palm trees are extremely pollinated. Farmers usually hand pollinate in commercial farming. It takes 2 – 3 male trees for 100 female dates. Therefore, it is appropriate to put about 3 varieties of male flowers among the female palm tree varieties. Pollination is essential in dates as pollen greatly affects the quality of dates, especially the ripening time and size of fruits.
Thinning of fruits is important at the date of cultivation and should be done manually by chemical spray. Fruit thinning is necessary for adequate flowering the following year and to improve fruit quality. It also helps to avoid premature fruit maturation.
Dates require a sufficient number of green leaves for proper growth and fruit yield. Fewer leaves can result in poor fruit quality. The number of leaves depends on the variety cultivated, eg. The optimum number of leaves in the Barhi variety is 7 to 10, while Hallway has 8 to 9. In June, the old leaves should cut to allow new leaf growth.
When you think about the farming business, you just need to know which equipment you can frequently use. And which farming is the best in profitable business? So we analyze that the Massey 1035 tractor is the best in each farming.
For further knowledge about date farming in India, stay tuned with us.
