Editing Date palm (section)

==Cultivation==
Dates are a traditional crop throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Dates (especially [[Medjool]] and [[Deglet Nour]]) are also cultivated in the southwestern United States, and in [[Sonora]] and [[Baja California]] in Mexico.

Date palms can take 4 to 8 years after planting before they will bear fruit, and start producing viable yields for commercial harvest between 7 and 10 years. Mature date palms can produce {{convert|150|-|300|lb|kg|order=flip|abbr=off|-1}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/GEPTS/pb143/CROP/DATE/date.htm|title=The Date, ''Phoenix dactylifera''|access-date=19 April 2015|archive-date=23 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150323050415/http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/gepts/pb143/CROP/Date/Date.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2002/sp0212.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2002/sp0212.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title = Publications &#124; Extension &#124; University of Nevada, Reno}}</ref> of dates per harvest season. They do not all ripen at the same time so several harvests are required. To obtain fruit of marketable quality, the bunches of dates must be thinned and bagged or covered before ripening so that the remaining fruits grow larger and are protected from weather and animals, such as birds, that also like to eat them.

Date palms require well-drained deep [[sandy loam]] soils with a pH of 8–11 (alkaline). The soil should have the ability to hold moisture and also be free of [[calcium carbonate]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Date Palm – ''Phoenix dactylifera'' |url=https://www.growables.org/information/TropicalFruit/PalmPhoenixDactiliferaFruitipedia.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406053205/https://www.growables.org/information/TropicalFruit/PalmPhoenixDactiliferaFruitipedia.htm |archive-date=6 April 2019 |access-date=2019-04-06 |website=www.growables.org}}</ref>

===Agricultural history===
Dates have been cultivated in the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years, and there is archaeological evidence of date cultivation in [[Mehrgarh]], a Neolithic civilization in western Pakistan, around 7000&nbsp;BCE<ref name="KenoyerHeuston2005">{{cite book |last1=Kenoyer |first1=Jonathan Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CjvF88iEE8C&pg=PP1 |title=The Ancient South Asian World |last2=Heuston |first2=Kimberley Burton |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-522243-2 |series=The World in Ancient Times |access-date=30 July 2013}}{{Page needed|date=July 2013}}</ref> and in [[eastern Arabia]] between 5530 and 5320 [[Radiocarbon dating#Calibration|calBC]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tengberg |first1=M. |date=November 2012 |title=Beginnings and early history of date palm garden cultivation in the Middle East |journal=Journal of Arid Environments |volume=86 |pages=139–147 |bibcode=2012JArEn..86..139T |doi=10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.11.022}}</ref> Dates have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to [[prehistoric Egypt]]. The [[ancient Egypt]]ians used the fruits to make date [[wine]] and ate dates at harvest.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} Evidence of cultivation is continually found throughout later civilizations in the Indus Valley, including the [[Harappa]]n period from 2600 to 1900&nbsp;BCE.<ref name="KenoyerHeuston2005" />
[[File:Mazafati dates - whole, halved and seed.jpg|thumb|Mazafati dates]]
One [[cultivar]], the [[Judean date palm]], is renowned for its long-lived [[orthodox seed]], which successfully sprouted after accidental storage for 2,000 years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fountain |first=Henry |date=2008-06-17 |title=Date Seed of Masada is Oldest Ever to Sprout |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17obseed.html |access-date=9 December 2021 |archive-date=9 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209185228/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17obseed.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In total seven seeds about 2000 years old have sprouted and turned into trees named Methuselah, Hannah, Adam, Judith, Boaz, Jonah and Uriel.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on genetic analysis of germinated ancient seeds and morphometric studies|first1=Sarah|last1=Sallon|first2=Emira|last2=Cherif|first3=Nathalie|last3=Chabrillange|first4=Elaine|last4=Solowey|first5=Muriel|last5=Gros-Balthazard|first6=Sarah|last6=Ivorra|first7=Jean-Frédéric|last7=Terral|first8=Markus|last8=Egli|first9=Frédérique|last9=Aberlenc|date=7 February 2020|journal=Science Advances|volume=6|issue=6|pages=eaax0384|doi=10.1126/sciadv.aax0384|pmid=32076636|pmc=7002127|bibcode=2020SciA....6..384S }}</ref> The upper survival time limit of properly stored seeds remains unknown.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bonner |first=Franklin T. |date=April 2008 |title=Chapter 4 Storage of Seeds |url=http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/Chapter%204.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/Chapter%204.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2008-06-21 |work=Woody Plant Seed Manual, USDA FS Agriculture Handbook 727 |publisher=National Seed Laboratory, 5675 Riggins Mill Rd, Dry Branch, GA 31020}}</ref> A genomic study from New York University Abu Dhabi Center for Genomics and Systems Biology showed that domesticated date palm varieties from North Africa, including well-known varieties such as [[Medjool]] and [[Deglet Nour]], share large parts of their genome with Middle East date palms and the Cretan wild palms, ''[[Phoenix theophrasti|P.&nbsp;theophrasti]]'', as well as Indian wild palms, ''[[Phoenix sylvestris]]''.

An article on date palm tree cultivation is contained in [[Ibn al-'Awwam]]'s 12th-century agricultural work, ''Book on Agriculture''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ibn al-'Awwam |first=Yaḥyá |author-link=Ibn al-'Awwam |url=https://archive.org/details/lelivredelagric00algoog/page/n14/mode/2up |title=Le livre de l'agriculture d'Ibn-al-Awam (kitab-al-felahah) |publisher=A. Franck |year=1864 |location=[[Paris]] |pages=321–326 (ch. 7 – Article 43) |language=fr |translator=J.-J. Clement-Mullet |oclc=780050566}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; clear:right; width:14em; text-align:center; margin-right:1em;"
|+ Dates production – 2022
|-
! colspan=2|<small>millions of tonnes</small>
|-
|{{EGY}} || 1.7 
|-
|{{SAU}} || 1.6
|-
|{{ALG}} || 1.2
|-
|{{IRN}} || 1.0
|-
|{{PAK}} || 0.7
|-
|{{IRQ}} || 0.7
|-
!World || 9.7
|-
|colspan=2|<small>Source:[[UN Food and Agriculture Organization]], Statistics Division</small><ref name="FAO">{{cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC|title=Dates production in 2022, Crops/Regions/World list/Production Quantity/Year (pick lists)|date=2024|publisher=UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Corporate Statistical Database ([[FAOSTAT]])|access-date=1 May 2024}}</ref>
|}

=== Cultivars ===
{{Main|List of date cultivars}}
A large number of [[date cultivar]]s and varieties emerged through history of its cultivation, but the exact number is difficult to assess. Hussain and El-Zeid<ref>{{cite report|publisher=Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Saudi Arabia |year=1975 |title=Studies on physical and chemical characteristics of date varieties of Saudi Arabia |last1=Hussain |first1=Fazal |last2=El-Zeid |first2=A}}</ref> (1975) have reported 400 varieties, while Nixon<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nixon |first=R.W. |year=1954  |title=Date culture in Saudi Arabia |journal=Ann. Date Growers' Instit. |issue=31 |pages=15–20}}</ref> (1954) named around 250. Most of those are limited to a particular region, and only a few dozen have attained broader commercial importance. The most renowned cultivars worldwide include [[Deglet Noor]], originally of Algeria; Yahidi and Hallawi of Iraq; [[Medjool]] of Morocco; [[Mazafati]] of Iran.<ref name="HuiBarta2008">{{cite book|first1=Jiwan S.|last1=Sidhu|editor-first1=Y. H.|editor-last1=Hui|editor-first2=József|editor-last2=Barta|editor-first3=M. Pilar|editor-last3=Cano|title=Handbook of Fruits and Fruit Processing|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vu8gsgLeW-YC&pg=PA396|chapter=22. Date Fruits Production and Processing|date=28 February 2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-27648-8|pages=396–|access-date=29 July 2021|archive-date=8 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408151130/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vu8gsgLeW-YC&pg=PA396|url-status=live}}</ref>