Date Palms were planted in the Coachella Valley of California, which is approximately two hours east of Los Angeles in the early 1890s. And now, plantings cover over 6,500 plus acres. These acres produce over 40 million pounds of our four primary varieties, which are the Deglet-Noor, the Medjool, the Barhi and the Zahidi.Date palms need plenty of ground water to drink, but high heat and arid weather to produce fruit. Therefore, date palms grow best in hot and arid climates.

Come learn about our date industry in California at the 2017 Date Palm Field Day

Time: 8:00 A.M – 3:00 P.M

Location: Coachella Valley Agricultural Research Station 86501 72nd Ave, Thermal, CA 92274

http://agops.ucr.edu/cvars/

$15.00/person

Registration link coming soon

(Online registration available on site day of for walk-ins – payment by Card only)

Agenda

8:00   Registration

8:20   Welcome – Sonia Rios, CE Advisor

8:30   Tom Perring, UCR - Pink Hibiscus Mealybug biocontrol

9:00   Robert Krueger, USDA/ARS - Nitrogen assessment of date palms  

9:30    Tony Fortier, Phoenix Agrotech - Tissue Culture date palms

10:00     Break

10:15   Peggy Mauk, UCR/CE - Establishment of date palms-Tissue Culture vs Off-shoots

10:45   MaryLou Polek, USDA/ARS -  Role of the USDA Germplasm Repository

11:15    TBD

11:45     Lunch

(Included in registration)

1:30    Field tours

If you have any questions contact: Sonia Rios, UC Farm advisor

sirios@ucanr.edu

951.683.6491 Ext. 224