Date palm
Also called: نخلة · نخيل · Nakhla · Nakheel
A palm lives over a hundred years. Plant an offshoot, never a stone, and its real year begins with hand pollination in February–March. The stages here are counted from pollination day, not from planting.
The year at a glance
Each month is split in half. The outline marks now.
Stage by stage
Stage 1 of 5
Spathe and pollination
Days 0–14
Spathe and pollination
Days 0–14The female spathe splits open on a bunch of white strands. This is a very short window — if it is not pollinated within days, the whole year’s crop is lost.
Do now
- Check the spathes daily from mid-February. They split suddenly and will not wait.
- Place three strands of fresh male pollen upside down inside the female bunch, then tie it loosely closed for two days.
- Repeat after three days on your important bunches as insurance against failure.
- Keep surplus male pollen dried in the fridge — it stays viable for a whole season.
Watch for
- Wind or rain during the pollination days washing the pollen away. Re-pollinate after any rain.
- A spathe that split and went unpollinated for a week — it will bear nothing this year.
In Qatar
Pollination in Qatar starts around mid-February on coastal farms and runs a fortnight later inland. These are the two most important weeks in the palm’s whole year.
Hababouk
Days 15–45Very small green fruits appear, about chickpea size. The palm naturally sheds some of them — that is self-regulation, not disease.
Do now
- Thin to eight or ten bunches on a mature palm, and remove a third of the strands from each.
- Start regular heavy irrigation. The palm now needs about three times its winter water.
- Spread manure in a ring about a metre out from the trunk, never against it.
Watch for
- Near-total fruit drop means pollination failed, not that it is thirsty.
- Sticky honeydew on the fronds — the start of a dubas bug infestation.
In Qatar
Thinning is the difference between saleable dates and small ones nobody wants. It is what amateur palm growers in Qatar most often skip.
Kimri, then khalal
Days 46–129Kimri: the fruit grows, staying hard, green and sour. Then khalal: it turns yellow or red depending on variety and becomes crisp and sweet. This is the longest stage in the palm’s cycle.
Do now
- Irrigate heavily and regularly. The palm’s peak water demand falls in June and July.
- Support heavy bunches by tying them up to the fronds so they do not break.
- Dust with micronised sulphur in May as protection against date mite.
- Sleeve the bunches in mesh bags against birds and dust.
Watch for
- Rough brown scurf on the fruit means date mite, and late treatment does nothing.
- Any gum oozing from the trunk — the red palm weevil sign, and it must be reported immediately.
In Qatar
Some Qatari varieties such as Khalas and Barhi are eaten crisp at khalal and sold in the souq in July, before they soften.
Rutab and tamr
Days 130–190Rutab: the fruit softens from the tip, sweetens and darkens. Then tamr: it loses its moisture and becomes a date that keeps for two years. Most varieties are picked at rutab.
Do now
- Harvest in several passes — fruit within one bunch does not soften all at once.
- Cut the whole bunch in the early morning before the heat builds.
- Freeze rutab in sealed bags at once if you will not eat it within days.
- Taper the irrigation down once harvest begins.
Watch for
- Birds and wasps go hard at rutab. Mesh sleeves are essential, not optional.
- High humidity or early rain fermenting the fruit on the palm.
In Qatar
The rutab season in Qatar runs from late July into September, peaking in August — exactly as Suhail rises.
After the harvest
Days 191–330The palm rests and builds its reserves for next year. These quiet months are what decide the quality of next season’s crop.
Do now
- Remove dead fronds and spent bunches in November–January only, when the red palm weevil is inactive.
- Seal every pruning cut immediately with a copper paste. An open wound is the weevil’s only entry point.
- Work 50 kg of well-rotted manure around a mature palm in December.
- Separate offshoots that have reached three or four years old in March or September to start a new palm.
Watch for
- Summer pruning — the single most dangerous mistake, because it opens wounds at the weevil’s most active time.
- The crown tilting or the central fronds collapsing: an advanced infestation that needs reporting urgently.
In Qatar
Red palm weevil control in Qatar is officially coordinated through the Ministry of Municipality. Reporting an infested palm protects every palm in the neighbourhood, not just yours.
- Water
- High
- Salt tolerance
- High
- Heat tolerance
- High
120 L/week in winter, 350 L in summer
Soil preparation
Dig a 1 × 1 × 1 m hole and mix the spoil half and half with well-rotted manure and coarse sand. A date palm tolerates salinity up to around 12,000 ppm — by a wide margin the highest in this guide.
Pests
Red palm weevil
- Sign
- Brown gum oozing from the trunk, a fermenting smell, an audible chewing from inside, and the crown tilting. The single most serious palm pest in Qatar and the Gulf.
- What to do
- Report it to the Ministry of Municipality at once — control is officially coordinated in Qatar. Never prune in summer, and seal every pruning wound immediately: wounds are its only way in.
Dubas bug
- Sign
- Sticky honeydew coating the fronds, followed by sooty mould and a general weakening of the crop.
- What to do
- Wash the fronds down with pressurised water, and improve airflow by removing dead fronds — in winter only.
Old-world date mite
- Sign
- A rough brown scurf on the fruit at the kimri stage that stops it filling out.
- What to do
- Dust with micronised sulphur early, in May. Treating after symptoms appear is useless.
Common problems
Seedless fruit that drops early
- Cause
- Failed pollination. The palm is dioecious: a female sets nothing without male pollen placed by hand.
- Fix
- Hand-pollinate within three to five days of the female spathe splitting: set three male strands inside the bunch and tie it closed.
Fruit splitting and rotting before harvest
- Cause
- High humidity or unseasonal rain during the rutab stage — a real risk on the Doha coast.
- Fix
- Bag the bunches in ventilated mesh sleeves, and thin the fruit within each bunch so air can move between them.
Small fruit and a poor crop
- Cause
- Overloading — the palm was left carrying everything it set.
- Fix
- Thin to eight or ten bunches on a mature palm, and strip a third of the strands from each bunch at the hababouk stage.
Picking
Harvested in stages depending on variety: some are eaten khalal (firm and crisp), some rutab (soft), some left to tamr. Cut the whole bunch with a sickle in the early morning.
Keeping
Rutab freezes and keeps a full year — the usual Gulf practice. Dry tamr keeps two years somewhere cool and dry.