Suckers?

[SiSi G]

Hello, thank you for accepting me to the forum. I have a few questions about my date palms. 

1. Is it possible to know what kind of date Palm I have? If not, is there any harm in eating the dates?

 

2. Are these new growths suckers or something else?

I believe suckers grow out of the ground yet these are also growing straight out of the trunk.

We did get a little behind on our maintenance last year and allowed the seeds to fall from their pods. Our landscaper believes these are new palm trees growing out of the trunk and we just have to keep clipping them when they grow. We have been doing that for about a year and it's quite a pain. So we recently started using a large pair of pliers to yank them out, hoping they would not grow back. I think that's been fairly successful but still getting quite a bit of new growth. When we are successful at pulling out the whole sucker, it has a white bulb at the end. The tree is about 7 years old.

 

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!  

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by SiSi G

[GottmitAlex]

I posed the same question regarding Phoenix genus fruit.  The answer was: they're all edible. Some may not taste as good as others.

 

And yes, those are suckers alright. Can you take a picture of the full palm please in order for experts to make a more precise ID?

Welcome to the forum!!!

[SiSi G]

Thank you for your reply. Hmmm. Suckers huh? I think I read I'm supposed to let them grow a foot high then saw them down. There will be quite a few on each tree if I let them grow. I'm concerned about nutrient loss for the main Stem, as well as aesthetics. 

Thanks for confirming that the dates won't harm me at least. 

I have a night shot of one of the palms. Hopefully it's acceptable.

[kinzyjr]

Hello @SiSi G and welcome to the forums.  At the moment, it looks like a standard date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) to my eye.  When/where did you get the palm?

[SiSi G]

I think it was about 3 years ago that our former landscaper installed them. I'm not sure where he obtained them from. 

[gilles06]

For the date wait until they turn brown and soft ,then they will ok to taste. The variety could be classic "deglet nour"

You can try to pull up the suckers by hand until they are not too big, take gloves and be carefull!

[Darold Petty]

Welcome to Palmtalk !  

[Fusca]

Has anyone here ever successfully propagated a Phoenix sucker?  I believe this is the preferred method of propagating a certain variety of dactylifera for commercial date growing.  I'm sure it would inflict a lot of flesh wounds, but I'm curious about the process.