Abstract The study examines four types of date palm surface fibres and determines their mechanical and physical properties. In addition, the properties of date palm fibre-reinforced concrete, such as strength, continuity index, toughness and microstructure, are given as a function of curing in water and in a hot-dry climate. The volume fraction and the length of fibres reinforcement were 2–3% and 15–60 mm respectively. Increasing the length and percentage of fibre-reinforcement in both water and hot dry curing, was found to improve the post-crack flexural strength and the toughness coefficients, but decreased the first crack and compressive strengths. In hot-dry climate a decrease of first crack strength with ageing was observed for each concrete type. Water curing decreased the global degree of the voids and cracks with time for each concrete type, but increased it in hot-dry climate.