For anyone else interested, I did a little reading and find that they'd probably do OK for me - hot, dry climate but need irrigation. The downside was 16 years before they fruit when grown from seed...

That's a long wait. If it was just a matter of germinating and planting out, that's one thing, but to have to irrigate them for 16 years ...

Exactly! I decided in the finish to grow some anyway. I'll plant them down the bottom of the orchard and see what happens.

In the meantime, I had a trip to the Big Smoke today. First stop: the fruit & veg dept for a bag of dates. Yum.

When they say irrigate, they mean flood don't they? - I was under the impression that they need loads and loads of water to be productive. I read a statistic on how much water a day they can suck up and whilst I can't remember the actual figure, it was incredibly high. They grow wild at Dalhousie Springs, in the far north of SA, where they have become quite a problem in the Artesian Springs. They were spread by the 'Afghan' camaleers, who interestingly were also responsible for spreading the red hopbush through the outback - the seeds of that plant were used as a stuffing in the saddlebags of the cameleers, now the plant dominates most of the riparian zones between the Flinders Ranges and Alice Springs. I ate wild dates off a tree at Coward Springs on the Oodnadatta Track, of all the weedy plants they are my favourites, nothing like a sugar hit after a long day wandering 'round the desert, though the tree was kinda spiney, and I had to 'shimmy' up a ways to get at the fruit...ouch.

cheers, mudlark