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| Date Palm Report Fall 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spring 2007 update: The past two springss there was no flowering in the commercial varieties. It appears that the winters on the coast of LaGonave are too warm to trigger flowering. We should see in the next few years if dates on the mainland and in the mountains of LaGonave produce more regularly. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| This is the first year commercial varieties of dates have produced and it is also probably a first for Haiti. 'Barhee' date fruited well despite a much wetter than normal summer! Barhee is reported to be The best variety for eating fresh off the tree. In Israel it averages over 400 pound of fruit per year from each tree. This tree was planted in 2000. It takes about 10 years or more to reach full production. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Closeup of two Barhee fruits cut in half. They are very sweet and hard-crisp like an apple. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Several other commercial varieties bloomed mid-summer which will result in ripening during January or February. These are the dryest montbs of the year with near desert conditions. Even though it is the coldest part of the year it is in the 80's during the day and 70's at night so they should ripen well, dehydrating into the dried dates that store well.. The variety above is Hilali. | ||||||||||||||||||
| The USDA reports that Haiti imports over half its food. The island of LaGonave has to import much of its food, fruits and vegetables from the mainland of Haiti so food prices extra high due to the insufficient transportation infrastructure of Haoto.. LaGonave doesn't have much land area that is good for agriculture but the date production this year shows that there are areas where dates can produce well. The date garden is on land that can only grow corn in wetter than average years. Most years it is completely unproductive for annual crops so date palms can even turn wasteland into productive land. There are over 100,000 people on LaGonave so there is plenty of local demand for fruit. On mainland Haiti there are some large irrigated areas along the coast with less rainfall than we get on LaGonave. Dates should integrate well, providing some wind and sun protection for vegetables or even bannanas planted under and around them.. During the past year or so, Cory has shared date palms with more than a dozen other missions and churches to help evaluate which varieties are best for Haiti and the environmental range they can produce well in. |
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| Link to Variety Report: | ||||||||||||||||||