Fruitful appointments? (5)

I believe the answer is:

dates

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'appointments?' is the definition.
('date' can be a synonym of 'appointment')

I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dates that I've seen before include "Specified parts of the year" , "Occasions" , "Small tree-fruits or social appointments" , "Is seeing" , "Trysts" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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