Growing Your Own DATES - I found a SECRET Date Tree Ranch...Delicious!

hey everybody it's Jake mace the vegan athlete I'm in an incredible place today I'm really excited I got up at 1: in the morning this morning and got with my man Stephen and we drove together to death valley where Nevada California and Arizona kind of share a border and we're at this hidden Oasis in the desert that has a stream running through it and using the stream as the Catalyst for growth the family here has planted an orchard of date palm trees and yes I'm here at the China date Ranch we picked up a few date palm trees we had to sample some of the most delicious and freshest dates I've ever eaten in my entire life and the owner Brian who was a great guy he toured us around the property told us the history of the ranch he let us sample some of their most Gourmet dates and told us how they first began growing date palm trees here when his great aunt ate a date for the first time loved it so much she ordered a box of pits in a catalog she planted the pits and from those pits they chose which varieties tasted best looked the best was best for landscaping best for production best for date bread and date smoothies and such and now they propagate off those original date Pals it's an amazing story and just look at the dates behind me in this section so if you guys come here to the China date Ranch it's also very educational they have some information on each date so you guys can learn about the variety you're eating or going to be planting and so I hope that one day my urban farm in Tempe looks kind of like this I mean check this out what Brian was telling us is that when they grow dates like this they put the cloth around them to protect the dates from any kind of animals that might try to eat the dates including uh vegan human beings cuz I don't want to eat too many of his dates but they can take the pups off the the mother trees and they can propagate those and plant those pups they let the dates ripen if you guys come over here and check it out you'll see the dates ripening in different stages of maturity and he said that when they take the pollen from a male palm tree and they use it to pollenize the female palm tree they exponentially increase their Harvest and so they go from producing about 30 or 40 lbs of fruit per tree to harvesting about 300 to 400 lb of fruit per tree and the key is is that one of the male date palm trees can help to pollenize up to 50 female date palm trees but when you let the air do it they produce much less dates so if you take the male pollen and you brush it against the newly opened female flowers you'll increase your fruit production and and what Brian the owner was telling me as he gave me a really generous tour of the place here was that when you plant the new date palm tree you want to use a combination of sand as well as he uses some potting mix just some low-grade potting mix from a just a garden store or nursery and he mixes the sand with the potting mix maybe some native soil in there and he makes a Sandy mix that's well draining with Mulch on top he even said put Mulch on top so check this date palm out right here and just if you guys are going to try to grow uh date palm trees in your edible landscape you know I would mimic what you see here I mean look at the the nice shape of the tree how they have it you know branching perfectly it's very symmetrical uh the ratio of trunk to leaves this is probably what you want to do at home uh if you want to be a master copy the Masters until you're the master you know what I mean and so they have all the dates wrapped in bundles and a few months ago when the flowers first opened on these female date pal trees they took the pollen from the male date pal trees and they brushed the pollen on the female flowers and that enabled them to to amplify and multiply their Harvest and so instead of about 30 or 40 PBS of dates per tree they get 300 to 400 to 500 lb of dates per tree and so if you lift this guy up right here you can see underneath can come in here close these are a bunch of dates not ripe yet and they are yellow just like this and if you're in the Phoenix area or Los Vegas area or California area you'll see a lot of trees in the city that are not kept by tree companies they look like this then usually a tree company comes by and cuts all these down and trims them so if I was you I would encourage your landscapers not to cut these and let them ripen so you can eat them and then this is another stage of growth this one is not quite quite as mature as the other one so you can see how there's different stages of maturity on the dates even though they're on the same tree I wanted to show you guys over here if you guys pan over this way this tree looks really impressive I'm not even going to begin to tell you the varieties because you want to come out here and talk to Brian or any of the experts from the date Ranch the China date Ranch and have them talk to you about the varieties cuz they know all about them and if you guys look underneath here on this one there are dates that are in different stages of ripeness so the yellow ones are not quite ready these ones look a little overripe a little shriveled and these ones look like they're in between half and half see that half yellow half ripe these ones not ripe these ones over ripe shriv a little bit and then these ones right here just perfect and Brian was good enough uh about 5 minutes ago to give us a sample of this date so I hope hope that Brian won't won't get mad at me for trying one more on camera so I'm going to pluck this one date off I'll gladly pay you for it if you want me to later but that looks like a very juicy humongous perfect magazine centerfold style date let me describe the taste to you guys I mean this is literally the best date I've ever eaten in my entire life I mean literally I used to like the barhe dates the best this one is warmed by the morning sun it's creamy it's juicy and it tastes better than any caramel you've ever had in your life and maybe I'll saved the pit and plant it just like the great ant of the China date Ranch and I mean I literally could sit here and eat all these dates I won't but I could cuz I love dates that much let's go check out some of the varieties they have up top and then we'll uh end this video for today so follow me if you guys check this out this is the original site of the original trees at the great ant of the China date Ranch planted and now they're very mature and they're looking fantastic and you can tell they've been here for many many decades so if you guys plant your date palms now and you live long enough you can see them mature to this [Applause] size so we're going to cut now to my house in Tempe and I'm going to show you guys the date palm trees just picked up here from the China date ranch we're going to plant them right in front of you guys and show you not only where I'm planting them but how I'm planting them the soil I'm planting them in how I'm going to water them and I'll give you guys progress reports of the date trees as they grow bigger and bigger if you subscribe to my YouTube channel you'll get those updates let's go to Tempe right now we're back in Tempe Arizona we made it back safely in record-breaking time I had an excellent experience at the China date Ranch and I will definitely go back again I think it was fantastic to eat the dates to see the gift shop to take a tour of the date trees and to see the incredible animal life and Landscape that surrounds that precious piece of land out there that's very close to Death Valley and so I took the date palm trees when I got home and I laid them in the river here which this River used to be a thriving vegetative Oasis garden but you guys saw my video from a few days ago that my mosquite tree fell on all this it broke the bridge it killed most of the Yerba Manza and loofah in the river but some survived and so I figured I'm repairing the river doing a lot of home projects you guys are getting me raw and unfiltered today and so I laid the date palms in the river because that's what Brian at the China date Ranch did at his Ranch he was he had these date palm trees laying in their River so I'm doing the same thing and I'm laying them in the river so that the roots stay alive and healthy while I dig the holes for these guys which are going to be behind you and then when I plant them they'll hopefully have some fish poop nutrients and really good uh healthy roots to jump start them and have them grow from the very first moment they're in the hole and so I normally like to have my yard looking really nice for you guys but I doing so much cleanup now from all the monsoons we've had and the tree that fell was literally I mean it was a taller than 50ft Tall mosqu Tree it's completely dead and down now we've mulched and wood chipped all of it and so I'm going to show you guys where these date pumps are going to go but don't judge my yard because it is in disarray right now and we're doing complete uh damage control so we're going to go over here now that this mosquite is down and we have turned him into wood chips we now have a huge microclimate that's full of an excess amount of sun where before this was completely in the shade all day long and so I'm going to put six of these date Pals that I got from the China date Ranch in my landscape I'm going to put one date palm here in this spot right here let it grow up above the fence here I'm going to put one date pal next to him here and have him grow up and I have a bubbler already ready to irrigate them then I'm going to come over here and I'm going to put one date pal in this area so that he's a partner for the chico sapote I got from Sheamus oi and then we're going to have a new gate here so that way there's room to walk between two date palms and get into the trash alley that'll be a nice little walk through the date pal king and queen as we go and take the trash out and then I'm going to put a couple over here so join me I'm going to put one date pal here and the reason is because this is a Grove of apple and pear trees and a mulberry bush and I want the date pal to go in this place that he grows up and as the sun is moving across the sky where I'm pointing now this date palm will hopefully in a year or two maybe two or 3 years give some shade to these apple trees in the heat of the summertime so we're doing some companion planting in this area and then over here is the last two date Pals we're going to put one here where this bubbler is and one here where this bubbler is so that these two spots will be the two date Pals that will be closest together we'll probably space them about 6 to 8 ft apart so we're pushing the the separation of the date palm trees but I think it'll be okay because I'm going to give them really healthy soil and they can grow up like the twin towers together and push themselves into the sky and help to to shade out a little bit of my garden from the summer heat that's the plan I'm going to get to digging the holes the beauty about these three holes is that they already had trees before that didn't make it and so now the ground is alive full of microbes I'm going to dig out the mulch and the hole and then back fill the special date palm tree mix that Brian told me to use on date palms I'm going to listen to his advice exactly but then I'm going to add a couple of things try to supercharge these guys and have the tastiest dates in all of Arizona this is going to be interesting because these two holes had trees and really good soil before this point so they're going to be really easy to dig I'm going to save the soil on the side and amend the soil to be perfect for these date palm trees the cool thing is is that the soil in this area will already be alive because it's been watered it's got microa in it it's got mycelium in it it's got microbials in it it's got active compost and Mulch and sand and native soil and composted wood chips and things like that so it's got a lot of healthy stuff in it so we all have trees that die sometimes and so when we use the hole again we want to scrape all the mulch away and save it on the side so I'm going to scrape it away and just save it over here and here's the old root stock of the old tree and now when I pull this guy out of here you can see how nice that soil was and this guy just didn't make it part of the reason was me actually all the reason was me so I'm going to put that guy to the side we'll probably use him for some kind of mulch later then I'm going to dig out all this nice soil and put it in my wheelbarrow okay my hole is dug out I think that the depth is perfect I even have a little bit of a raised burm around the edges so that the water will stay in the root zone of the date palm and Brian from the China date Ranch he was really the man he was so knowledgeable about dates he was like the date a sewer not only of the how the dates taste but also how to plant them how to propagate them everything about dates and he told me a few things one he said that they actually water their date palm trees twice a week especially in the summertime they might back it off in the winter and even though they're established still twice a week and they get all their water from their stream that's local there at the ranch number two he said to make the soil a combination of sand and then go to the store and buy some just some low- grade compost to mix it together maybe with a little bit of native soil in there and make it a very Sandy mix cuz they want to have that drainage and so I'm going to do that I'm going to try to do what he said and what I've got in bucket number one is a bucket full of sand and this bucket is just full of sand here and uh maybe a little bit of a little bit of composted mulch but it's just 99% sand so I'm going to pour that in there just like that then I've got the special bag of Sheamus oir mix which this is is lava sand with some lava rock and a little bit of composted mle so it's a very sandy soil but it's the lava sand really good for the microbes so we're going to throw some of that Sheamus oi lava sand mix in there and then combined with that we've got some compost here that I use in all my raised beds and planting trees like this that need some compost and some active microbes and so we're going to put some of that compost in there and then I've got my wheelbarrow full of the soil that I dug out of the hole and this wheelbarrow is full of some native soil some sand some worm castings as well as a little bit of compost and some of the azomite rock minerals so we're going to back fill some of that in there then I'm going to take my bag of the azomite rock dust minerals and this is over 70 different Rock minerals and Trace elements and a shout out to my friend John kler with growing Your Greens cuz he's uh freak when it comes to the azomite and The Rock Dust minerals and I'm hoping that I can grow date palms that'll fruit with rock dust minerals and then let John kler my friend try them out and hopefully he'll say Jake these are the sweetest and most delicious dates I've ever tasted so we're going to dig all this together mix it up and if you guys get in here nice and close I'll show you what the mixed version of this soil looks like now so it's not I don't know if the camera can pick it up exactly how it looks in real life it's not too dark it's just dark enough and it's got a mixture of native clay with sand and so I know this soil is going to have nutrients in it it's also going to drain very well and breathe and allow the roots to take hold but also the roots will have enough space to grow and expand and become mature so now let's go get our first date palm and see how he goes in this hole in this hole here we're going to put the date palm that they call the China Ranch black we're going to put the black here we're going to put the China Ranch gold there and the China Ranch gold there and have the gold black and gold make a Oreo cookie sandwich of sours with the black in the middle and the Gold's on the outside let's go get our victim so you guys can see right here it says black and Fe which doesn't mean Iron it means female so black female I'm going to grab this guy carefully because these date pums have really vicious thorns on them let that water kind of run out there and now we're going to bring him over and put him in the hole and so here's the last two important steps of this process that Brian told me was number one you want to make sure to plant the soil up to the fattest part of the trunk here so where the trunk becomes kind of bulbous and kind of fat right here in the middle bring the soil level up to the fat part so I think this is a little too low still so I'm going to kind of move some dirt in there like this and that will bring him a few inches higher and now in my opinion that looks pretty good and I'm going to stand him straight like this then kind of get back and look and make sure that he looks pretty good good and I think I might turn him a little bit like that and that looks pretty good to me so I think that that's going to be a winner and I'm going to set him right in that hole just like that the Second Step I want to do to end this thing is grab the special bag and in this bag I have some micro Risa and the micro Risa is that active microbe mycelium that's going to help to create that interconnected web of microbes beneath the soil and allow the tree to take nutrients from all over the place so we're going to sprinkle this guy in there kind of along the root ball next to where the roots are going to be and that will really supercharge the microb explosion in this guy and then we're going to backfill our good soil mixture into the hole and allow this guy to stand on his own then we're going to water him thoroughly and then we're going to put Mulch on top I got him in the hole he looks so happy we're going to gently rake over some of our Mulch on top that way he has a a good layer of mulch including composted wood chips hay leaves and general yard clipping debris and then the last thing we're going to do after the mulch is on top just like that we're going to water them and I've got my water here I'll spray the mulch down to kind of make it wet I'm going to spray the the lovely date palm off here he looks beautiful and dates are one of my favorite foods on the planet I can't wait to have my own fresh dates with such an amazing story behind them as the one that I just had at the China date Ranch I love my experience there thank you to Brian for being so courteous and a great host and for growing such amazing trees that we can all enjoy and if you guys subscribe to my YouTube channel I'm going to be very excited to bring you updates of how this date grows matures flowers and then fruits for the first time and then I will definitely eat the dates right in front of you thanks for watching my video and thanks for watching all the videos at our channel here the vegan athlete YouTube channel I really encourage you guys if you want to grow as a gardener and learn about date palm trees to head over and see my friends at the China date Ranch it's a long drive but well worth it and a beautiful area of the country and as always don't forget that if you want to be sustainable and a positive member of the planet go vegan and grow your food at home like delicious dates I'll see you guys next [Music] time [Music]

Channel: Off Grid Athlete

Views: 287,119

Keywords: Date Palm (Food), Date, Dates, Date Fruit, Date Palm Tree, Palm Tree, China Date Ranch, Jake Mace, Date Shake, Plant, Planting, Barhi, Medjool, khadrawi, vegan, raw vegan, Veganism (Diet), Raw Food (Diet), garden, gardening, grow, growing, soil, Date Palm, Date Tree

Id: 04oEg1nz0ZQ

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2015