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Mezirah: Laboratory palm shoots produce high quality dates, said a specialist in agriculture.
A large amount of laboratory research has been done to improve date production, said Eman Hussain, from Date Palm Development Unit Palm Tissue Culture Laboratory at UAE University.
The traditional method of planting palm trees is to plant seedlings produced from buds, which grow in the axilla of the fronds during the first two years of the palm tree. It needs five to seven years to start yielding dates.
Speaking at the recent fourth Liwa Festival in the Western Region, Eman explained the method of palm tissue culture. "Through this scientific method, the genetic quality of the fruit can be improved, it can resist bacteria and insects better, and start production in three to four years."
In the laboratory, one taproot of one palm tree produces thousands of palm shoots, and one palm tree can producer three to five seedlings in a year. First the taproot must be sterilised and cut into lamellate in a laboratory and cleaned of sand and bacteria. The lamellate is left for three months to grow, she said.
In the next step, the lamellate is treated like a foetus. Through narrow pipes we feed it to strengthen the weak parts," she said. After three months it turns to buds and is transferred to another medium to make it taller and to grow its roots.
In this stage, the shoots are "strong, healthy and ready to be planted in a greenhouse. After one year it can be planted in any farm and in three to four years it will start producing high quality dates," according to Eman.
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