“Although most farming in the United States has become increasingly mechanized, date cultivation defies automation, preserving a hands-on tradition honed over generations.
“If you’re growing citrus, you can bring bee boxes out, and the bees will do all the pollination for you,” says Mark Tadros, a grower of dates and other produce at Aziz Farms in Thermal. “For dates, trees are primarily hand-pollinated, hand-thinned, and bagged and harvested by hand. A ton of labor goes into packing the dates as well.”
Date farming is a year-round business. A palmero typically climbs each tree seven or eight times a year to trim thorns, remove old bunches, pollinate female trees, thin date strands, tie down and wrap bunches in paper bags for protection, and eventually harvest the dates…”
[Read the full article at palmspringslife.com]