Judean date palm 2005, before knowing the gender of the palm tree, Dr. Solowey was hoping that it would turn out to be female, for which there was a 50% chance, because that would have allowed it to give fruit; on the contrary, "if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity." Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and is male. As of 2012, there were tentative plans to crossbreed the palm with what was considered its closest extant relative, the Hayani date from Egypt, to generate fruit by 2022. By 2015 Methuselah had produced pollen that has been used successfully to pollinate
Fruit tree propagation fruit production at an earlier age. There is a lack of research on the use of the own root method in large-scale systems. British horticulturalist Hugh Ermen was a prominent advocate of own root fruit trees, particularly Apple trees, following his work at the Brogdale research centre in Kent. The research undertaken at Brogdale did not continue but there has been renewed academic interest in own root fruit trees since the turn of the century. In addition to propagating trees on rootstocks designed to control size/vigour and confer disease resistance, grafting above the rootstock can be used to provide multiple