All types of palm trees are very popular among indoor plant lovers. Palm trees are classified as ornamental deciduous focal plants. Such plants are used for landscaping residential and office premises, winter gardens, greenhouses. Due to their large size (some palm trees, with good care at home, reach a height of up to 2 meters), such plants can be filled with empty place indoors or divide the room into zones.
All indoor palm trees are divided into four types: reed palms (, chrysalilocarpus), pinnate palms (, coconut, date), fan palms (chamerops, latania,) and sago palms.
Palm trees are in great demand among lovers of indoor plants, despite the fact that adult specimens are very expensive. But you can grow a palm tree like a date palm yourself from a date seed purchased at the market. But first, let's get acquainted with the secrets of caring for a palm tree.
Date palm: growing and care at home
Date - not quite capricious plant, if you follow simple recommendations for its care, it will delight you with its beauty.
Lighting
Date palm - light-loving plant, so choose a corner for her in your house where there will be enough light, but try to prevent direct sunlight from falling on her leaves, especially in summer time, otherwise burns cannot be avoided.
And don’t be upset if the room where you want to place your pet has windows facing north. The palm tree tolerates light shading well. Therefore, if your palm tree will live in a room whose windows face north, place it closer to the window, this will be enough for it.
In the summer, if you live in your own house, it is best to take the palm tree outside when the night temperature is at least 12 degrees. Choose a quiet place for her in partial shade. If you live in an apartment, then a palm tree on the balcony would also be nice. The only thing is, if the balcony is too “sunny”, shade the windows with curtains so that the leaves do not get burned.
Temperature
The winter air temperature in the room where the palm tree will live should not exceed 16 degrees (maximum 18 degrees), but not lower than 12 degrees Celsius. If the temperature in your room in winter exceeds 18 degrees, try to place the pot with a palm tree in the coolest place (or closer to balcony door either a window or to the north wall).
Air humidity
Watering a palm tree
The most important condition for the active growth of a date palm is that the pot with the plant has good drainage; palm trees do not like stagnant water. In winter, watering should be done moderately, avoiding drying out and waterlogging of the soil. In summer you need to water more abundantly. It is advisable to leave water for irrigation for a couple of days if it is not possible to water with rain or melt.
Date transplant
Try to replant an adult palm tree only in cases of extreme necessity. She doesn't like to be bothered. If such a need arises, then try to damage the earthen ball around the roots as little as possible. Young plants can be replanted no more than once a year. It is better not to skimp on soil for palm trees. Now every flower shop has specially prepared soil mixtures for each type of plant.
The date palm reproduces by seed. To do this, take a pit from a date bought at the market or in a store and carefully break its strong shell to make it easier for the sprout to germinate. Stick the seed into the substrate (preferably peat or, mixed with sand, which retain moisture better) vertically so that the top of the seed is recessed by about 1 cm.
The main condition: the temperature for germination should be high (20-30 degrees) and the soil should not be allowed to dry out. At the same time, you don’t have to worry about lighting at this time; at this stage it is not necessary. And be patient, the process of seed germination is quite long - from three months to six months. After the sprout appears, place the pot in a bright place.
Plant nutrition
The date palm is very responsive to fertilizing. You can, of course, buy special fertilizer for palm trees in the store, or you can prepare it yourself. For example, very good result Fertilizing the plant with fertilizer made from bird droppings (you can use chicken droppings, or even better, pigeon droppings).
To do this, fill 1/3 of the jar with dry manure and fill the rest with water. Let it brew for at least 10 days, stirring occasionally. When watering, use the following proportion: 1 part of ready-made fertilizer to 10 parts of water. In summer they fertilize once every 10 days, in winter less often - once every 30 days. You can also use potassium nitrate to fertilize palm trees in the summer in the ratio: 1 teaspoon of nitrate (without a slide) per 1 liter of water.
The date palm is one of the most popular exotic plants, which is grown at home. Moreover, if you provide this plant with comfortable conditions and care for it correctly, you can enjoy home-grown dates.
The date palm cannot be called a difficult plant to care for; for its active growth and abundant fruiting, only a few mandatory aspects of care are sufficient: sufficient light, abundant watering and regular feeding . We will tell you how to properly care for this plant at home in today’s article.
Choosing a suitable location
The date palm does not tolerate direct sunlight at all, as it leaves burns on its leaves. For of this plant It is better to select a place where there will be a sufficient amount of diffused light. If the date palm does not have enough lighting, the edges of its leaves begin to turn yellow; this is easy to notice if you place the flower in partial shade.
Optimal watering of date palm
In the summer, you should not allow the earthen ball to dry out, so you need to water the plant often and abundantly, but in winter, when the temperature should be much lower, you should water the plant when the soil is completely dry.
For irrigation you need to use settled water room temperature, tap water can cause various diseases in the plant. IN summer heat you can add spraying the plant with a spray bottle or wiping the leaves with a damp cloth.
Optimal temperature and humidity
The most difficult task facing a florist who wants to grow a date palm at home is maintaining a suitable temperature regime. Most often, the date palm is placed in air-conditioned rooms, where the temperature, even in the heat of summer, does not rise above +23 - +24 degrees. Optimal temperature in summer +17 - +21 degrees, and in winter the date palm can easily tolerate a drop in temperature to +11 - +12 degrees.
The humidity level should be between 40-50%, so this plant should not be left near heating devices that dry out the air.
Necessary feeding and fertilizers
The amount and frequency of fertilizing depends solely on the goals you set for yourself. If we're talking about just about how to grow a date palm decorative decoration different rooms, then this plant can easily tolerate the absence of additional fertilizers. But if you are interested in the fruiting of this plant, then you cannot do without additional fertilizers. On average, it is advisable to fertilize a date palm once every two weeks; complex fertilizers are perfect for these purposes. mineral fertilizers .
Transplanting a plant
Like many other palm trees, date palms do not tolerate replanting with a complete replacement of the soil and cutting off the roots, so this plant is transferred from one pot to another, only with the replacement of the top layer of soil. Transshipment Perform every year for young plants and once every 2-3 years for older representatives. For replanting, either a soil mixture for palm trees or even the simplest one - universal soil for indoor plants - is suitable.
If your date palm is still very small, then you should not choose too large a container for it; it is better to start with a small pot, and with each subsequent replanting, choose a container slightly larger than the previous one.
The best time for transshipment of date palms is mid-spring, or rather April month. During this period, the active growth of this plant is just beginning, so the new soil and free place for the rhizome will contribute rapid growth your palm tree.
Date palm propagation
The easiest and most popular method of date palm propagation is seminal
, the best part is that even pits from dried dates bought at the market will do. First, the pit is freed from the pulp, then it must be left for three days in a container with water. You need to plant a date seed in a container with an earthen mixture, which often consists of leaf soil, turf and sand.
It’s good if there is a greenhouse in the house, then the seeds will germinate much faster. It is important to remember that the necessary attributes for the active growth of date seeds are abundance sunlight and sufficient moisture.
Having a date palm at home is pleasant and prestigious, because it is exotic indoor plant will perfectly decorate any interior. It makes no difference what kind of plant you have; knowledge of how to care for a date palm will be useful to all owners of these indoor plants.
Even young bushes that do not yet have beautiful trunks are already proudly called palm trees, therefore good care will definitely make any unprepossessing sprout a real pride of the house if it is correct and constant.
Date palm at home
In the wild, the date palm grows in India and Africa; scientists know of 17 of its species. A tree lives among the hot sand for about 150 years, and during this time many new plants grow around it, growing from its seeds and roots. Is it really possible for a desert palm tree to grow in our apartments without specific care?
- Robelena (Phoenix Roebelenii) with a very beautiful dense crown no higher than 1.5-2 meters.
- Canary (Phoenix Canariensis) – height up to 2 meters, feathery trunks, hard straight and narrow leaves.
- Finger (Phoenix Dactylifera) is the most common form, not very beautiful, but growing relatively quickly. The disadvantage of this plant is that its trunk will gradually become bare over time.
Growing a date at home requires a lot of desire and time, but it can be an excellent hobby for long years. Many people try to grow date palms from, this is an excellent solution for anyone who does not have the opportunity to purchase an adult seedling, which is relatively expensive.
How to care for a date palm
The date tree will not delight you with its beauty for the first five years; its decorative value will appear only after 5-7 years. Don’t expect that, having grown a date from a seed, you will be able to have an excellent decor for your home in just a couple of years.
To decorate your home with an adult indoor date palm, caring for it throughout the years has several important points:
- It must be constantly turned towards the sun so that the sun's rays reach all the leaves. Without light, the leaves stretch, develop unevenly and become brittle.
- The plant is very afraid of drafts. When ventilating your home in the autumn-winter period, you need to protect it from cold air currents.
- When watering, water should not stagnate at the roots, so good drainage is required condition. For irrigation, use settled, soft water without chlorine at a temperature of approximately 20°C.
- The leaves need to be sprayed daily, as the tree needs wet air. Once a week, the plant will even need a real shower, but during the procedure, the earthen lump in the pot must be carefully covered with film.
- The leaves should also be regularly wiped with damp sponges so that they are not attacked by pests and simply to ensure that the palm tree has a well-groomed appearance.
- Under no circumstances should you cut or break off the top of a palm tree. Trimming the top of the stem can result in the death of the plant.
- Mineral and organic fertilizers deposit twice a month warm period and once a month - in winter. Complex preparations for palm trees or decorative foliage indoor plants are suitable. They are entered only in wet soil, in diluted form.
Date palm – replanting, transshipment
The plant often begins to hurt after transplantation. It bears it very hard if everything is done traditional way. How to replant a date palm, is it necessary to do it at all?
A young date palm (up to 4-5 years old) is replanted annually, and mature plant– in 2-3 years. This is done in the spring. Every six months it is recommended to remove the top soil layer and fill the vacant space with new soil.
Replanting is required only when the roots no longer fit in the pot and are clearly visible through the drainage holes, so each replanting (more precisely, transferring) is done into a pot 3-4 cm larger in diameter. To do this, the bush is carefully transferred into a new container, and the voids are filled with soil.
Experts in caring for date palms at home have noticed: the larger the pot becomes, the more intense the plant begins to grow. But you should not take containers that are too large, as the tree’s growth may stop in them.
For transplantation, store bought ones are taken soil mixtures“For palm trees” or the soil is prepared independently based on:
- 2 parts light clay-turf;
- 2 parts humus-leaf;
- 1 part peat;
- 1 part rotted manure;
- 1 part sand;
- A little charcoal.
The soil should be loose, soft, permeable to air and moisture. A good drainage layer should be placed at the bottom of the pot to prevent water stagnation as much as possible. The pot should be chosen not wide, but high, so that long roots fit well.
Date palm diseases
It would seem that the indoor date palm is receiving care, but it appearance not on high level– it dries, the leaves turn yellow, darken, and curl. What could be the problem?
Let's look at what date palm diseases can occur due to poor care:
- If the leaves become completely dark, almost brown, the trunk becomes soft, and a putrid smell is felt, then this indicates waterlogged soil. After such signs appear, watering stops and you need to wait until the soil dries.
- It is necessary to inspect what condition it is in root system To do this, the plant is removed from the container in which it grows. If all the roots are soft, watery, dark, then they have already died and such a palm tree cannot be saved. If there are living roots, then they must be carefully protected from dead ones by cutting them off and sprinkling crushed coal on the cut areas.
- If only the tips of the leaves turn brown, this happens as a result of lack of watering, dry air or winter drafts, sudden temperature changes. Brown leaves they're not scary downstairs - it's age-related changes. The darkened leaves have died, so they should be cut off sharp knife, they cannot be restored.
- If a date palm turns yellow, it means that it is watered either with hard water or does not receive enough moisture and nutrients. Due to insufficient watering, the leaves droop, and this defect cannot be corrected. You can lift them by tying them to a support.
- Pale appearance indicates too much light or red lesions spider mite. To protect the tree from bright solar lighting, you need to slightly shade the plant.
- If a date palm dries out, the leaves fall off, darken, curl, and brown plaques appear on their surface - the plant dies from pests.
Pest control - scale insects, mealybugs or spider mites - is standard for all indoor plants. You need to wash the leaves with a solution laundry soap, sprinkle with garlic extract. If severe damage is observed, apply a solution of Actellik (a broad-spectrum insecticide) - 1-2 ml per liter of water.
Today you learned what a date palm can be like at home, how to care for it, how to replant it correctly and what diseases can harm your pet. Don't stop there, let your first experience in growing exotic plants help you create a real greenhouse. Winter Garden home is a dream that many people fail to realize, but you can definitely do it! Good luck!
Or Phoenix, or Date (lat. Phoenix)- a genus of plants in the Palm family, which includes about 20 species native to Africa and Eurasia. This plant has been known to mankind for more than two thousand years, the first mentions of it date back to the sixth century BC - even then the date palm was grown in Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern Iraq. The date palm belongs to the cirrus species of palm trees, like howea or coconut, and in nature sometimes reaches thirty meters in height. The fruits of the date palm are a widely known and beloved delicacy for which the plant is grown in industrial scale. In addition, date palm sap is used to produce sugar. However, the indoor date palm has long become popular, and interest in it has especially increased since it became known that it is quite possible to grow it from a date seed. But before you grow a date palm at home, you should study its growing conditions in nature.
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Planting and caring for a date palm (in brief)
- Bloom: decorative foliage plant.
- Lighting: bright sunlight.
- Temperature: usual for residential premises, but in winter cooler conditions are needed - within 12-18 ˚C.
- Watering: regular, moderate.
- Air humidity: in the hot season, it is recommended to spray the leaves with water and wipe them with a damp sponge, and shower once a week. In winter, the plant should be kept as far as possible from heating appliances.
- Feeding: in spring and summer, fertilizers are applied every week for palm trees or for decorative deciduous plants; in winter, one fertilizing per month is enough.
- Rest period: it is not expressed at home, but it is advisable to give the plant 1-1.5 months to rest in winter.
- Transfer: up to five years, the plant is replanted annually, then as needed and as rarely as possible.
- Reproduction: pits (seeds).
- Pests: spider mites, scale insects, mealybugs.
- Diseases: pink rot, leaf spot, root rot.
Read more about growing date palms below.
Domestic date palm - growing conditions
In nature, the date palm plant is a tree or a squat shrub with feathery leaves - the main decorative advantage of the plant. A date palm at home can only grow up to two meters, and even in this case, a date palm indoor plant requires significant space, so an adult plant is placed in rooms where there is almost no furniture. But if a date palm is grown from a seed, you can always find a place for a small pot at home, because such a tree will grow for a very long time, and then, lo and behold, living conditions will change for the better, and there will be enough space in the apartment for a date palm. After all, an adult large plant can be placed in the office. The date palm blooms with panicles of yellow flowers. But don’t expect to eat dates from your palm tree: the tree begins to bloom, and, consequently, bear fruit only when it reaches a height of fifteen meters, which is impossible at home.
Date palm from seed
How to grow a date palm from a seed
Before planting a date palm, you need to prepare the date pits themselves for planting; to be safe, it is better to plant several at once, and prepare the soil for planting. The pits are suitable from fresh, candied or dried dates - the main thing is that the fruits are not subjected to heat treatment. In order for the seeds to sprout faster, it is better to slightly break their shell by rubbing sandpaper, and in order to obtain the soil necessary for seed germination, you need to mix raw sawdust, sand and peat in equal parts. The seeds are placed vertically in the soil and sprinkled on top with a layer of the same substrate 1 cm thick, then the pot or container is placed in a warm place where the temperature is above 20 ºC, or even better - 25-30 ºC, and kept, making sure that the soil was warm all the time, moist, but not wet. To do this, it is best to keep it near heat sources, laying sphagnum moss on the surface of the substrate. Don’t expect quick results: a seed can sit in the ground and swell for three or six months before it sprouts.
When the sprouts hatch, move the container to bright light, protecting the seedlings from direct rays, regularly moisten the soil and spray warm water seedlings, and when they grow to 10-15 cm, plant the seedlings in personal pots with a diameter of 15 cm in soil consisting of four parts of humus, one part of peat soil with the addition of two parts of sand, turf and leaf soil. Also throw a couple of handfuls of charcoal into the mixture and mix everything thoroughly before planting. Don't forget to put a layer of drainage material at the bottom of the pot.
A date palm grown from seed at home can produce leaves only in the third or even fifth year of life. The growing point of the date palm is at the top of the trunk, so you cannot cut it or in any way try to shape the crown of the tree. Make sure that the new arrow of the leaf is turned from light to shadow, and from time to time turn the pot around its axis so that the crown of the tree is formed evenly.
Date palm care at home
How to care for a date palm
Caring for your home date palm is very simple. It needs to be kept in light sunny place in a well-ventilated area. The temperature in summer can be any, but in winter time should be no higher than 18 ºC and no lower than 12 ºC.
In hot weather, date palm leaves can dry out at the ends, so it is advisable to spray them several times a day or wipe them with a damp sponge, and organize a shower for the plant once a week, closing upper layer soil from moisture penetration.
In spring and summer, feed your palm weekly with organic and mineral fertilizers, in the fall, fertilize twice as often - once every two weeks; in the winter, if necessary, it is enough to apply complex fertilizers once a month.
Watering a date palm
Growing a date palm requires regular, balanced watering of the plant with settled, soft water. What does balanced watering mean? This means that you need to moisten the soil so that the plant has enough water, but nothing more. To prevent excess moisture from stagnating in the roots of the plant, do not forget to put a thick layer of drainage in the pot when replanting.
Replanting a date palm
Young plants that have not reached the age of five are replanted annually, those that are older - only if necessary, because the date palm does not like to be disturbed. When replanting, you need to act as carefully as possible so as not to damage the root of the date palm, so it is best to use the method of transferring the plant from an old pot to a new one. The pot for the date palm should be deep because its roots are long, and each subsequent pot should be 3-4 cm in diameter larger than the previous one. Before replanting your date palm, do not forget about the drainage layer. If the old pot for the palm tree still fits, but you are worried that the soil has already lost the qualities necessary for the plant, carefully remove the top layer of the old substrate and replace it with fresh one. This needs to be done once every six months.
Date palm propagation
At home, the date palm reproduces only by seeds - in other words, by seeds.
Pests and diseases of date palm
Insect pests
Most often, if maintenance conditions are violated, the date palm suffers from spider mites, mealybugs and scale insects. The best way pest control - correct mistakes in care. It is best to remove insects and traces of their activity that destroy the plant. mechanically, rubbing date palm leaves with soap and vodka solution (15 g liquid soap, any dishwashing detergent or dilute a teaspoon of grated solid soap dissolved in warm water in a liter of warm water and add two tablespoons of vodka to the solution). If the number does not pass, after a week the treatment of the leaves must be repeated, just do not forget to protect the soil in the pot from getting soap into it. In case of severe pest infestation, you will have to resort to treating date palm leaves with insecticides, and the best of them is actellik.
Among the diseases of the date palm, spotting is known, which disfigures the leaf blade, and pink rot, which affects not only the leaves, but sometimes also the stem, and causes them to rot. Fortunately, only weak and sick plants are susceptible to infection by these diseases, so the key to the health of your date palm is to follow the rules of caring for it. If trouble happens and the plant gets sick, treat the palm tree twice with a fungicide containing mancozeb and methyl thiophanate, observing a week interval between sessions.
Date palm dries out
Sometimes the leaves of a date palm dry out from the tips, and this is clear evidence that the room where the plant is located is too low humidity air at a normal level of 50%. This is not so much, and there are more than enough ways to increase air humidity to the required value, so do not be lazy to spray and wash the leaves, otherwise the palm tree will lose its decorative effect, and it will be a great pity for wasted time and effort. Remember that the date palm dries out only if the owner is careless.
Date palm turns yellow
If you have not changed your attitude towards palm tree care in time and have not resolved the issue of supplying the plant with moisture at all levels, the next signal of an imbalance in the water balance after dry tips is yellowing leaves of the date palm. This means that you not only spray the leaves of the plant irregularly, but also forget to water it, allowing the earthen lump in the pot to dry out. If you don't have enough time to care for the plant, maybe it would be better to give your date palm to someone who has the time to take care of it?
Date palm leaves darken
When the soil in a potted date palm is chronically waterlogged, the plant's leaves gradually darken from green to brown, the trunk becomes soft, and the plant smells rotten. As soon as you notice this, stop watering the palm tree, remove it from the pot and inspect the roots: if they become dark, soft and watery, the plant has already died, but if there are still living roots among the rotten roots, then it makes sense to cut off the dead roots, sprinkling the sections with crushed charcoal, and transplant the date palm into fresh soil.
Do you want to create a uniquely beautiful exhibition? Grow up tree plant. For those who have such a desire, a date palm from a seed at home is the best option.
To grow a date palm you will have to be patient. It grows slowly and, unfortunately, will not bear fruit at home. To do this, its height must be at least 15 m. But this is not necessary. Even without fruits, an attractive plant with huge fans of leaves will decorate any interior. This will require a lot of space and light.
How to germinate a date seed?
Every plant starts with a seed. The date palm is no exception. There is no need to specifically look for its seeds - you can buy dates at any vegetable store. There is no point in planting date palm seeds that have not been germinated. Most likely, they simply will not sprout or the process will drag on for a very long time.
So, let's germinate:
- select seeds from store-bought dates;
- we inspect them for damage, traces of mold or insects, and reject anything that is not standard;
- soak in clean water for a day to remove the remaining pulp, changing it several times, the pulp contains substances that inhibit seed germination;
- wash the seeds;
- we awaken the seed for 48 hours in a thermos with slightly warmed melt water with the addition of a few grains of humate;
- put in a container with damp, loose material: vermicult, hydrogel, crushed and sterilized sphagnum moss, placing all this in plastic bag;
- To germinate seeds, you need a temperature of about 35 degrees - a place near a heating radiator is ideal;
- germination takes from 2 to 3 months, and all this time you need to monitor the humidity of the substrate and remove condensation formed on the film.
As soon as sharp sprouts appeared, it was time to move the seeds into the ground.
Soil requirement
Most best soil, both for young palm trees and for grown plants - palm substrate.
If it is not possible to purchase it, prepare the soil with the following composition:
- turf land;
- peat;
- sand.
All components are taken in equal parts. You can add a little steamed moss or hardwood sawdust for looseness. At this stage, a pot 10 or 12 cm high is enough for the plant. There should be drainage at the bottom of the pot.
Landing rules
There is no consensus among flower growers here. Most believe that the seed should be stuck vertically so that there is a 1 cm layer of soil above it. But there is an opinion that seeds placed in pots horizontally with the seam down and covered with a 2 cm thick layer of soil germinate better. In any case, start for the sake of one seed not worth the hassle. Their germination is not very good, so it’s easier to plant a few seeds in two pots different ways and see which one is more effective. You will have to be patient while waiting for the shoots to emerge. Germination can take up to 5 months. All this time, a plastic bag should be placed on the pot, which should be removed for ventilation. The soil is sprayed with a spray bottle to maintain its moisture. The pots should be kept at a temperature of 20 to 30 degrees. They don't need light at this time.
How to care for a palm tree at home?
To grow a date palm from a seed, it is not enough to plant it; you need to properly care for the newly emerged seedlings and mature plants. This tree is very sensitive to any errors in care, to which it responds with poor health. Young sprouts that have just hatched especially need attention. They grow very quickly, which is not surprising - after all, this is a tree. Its growth power is much higher than that of herbaceous plants. Only after the first leaf blooms does the growth rate slow down. The first leaves are completely different from palm leaves; they are linear with clearly visible longitudinal grooves. Then they split into segments, which make up amazingly beautiful fans.
At the beginning of growth, the palm tree requires especially a lot of light, so the pots are placed at the most bright window. The air temperature for young plants should not fall below 20 degrees. In winter, you can insulate the window sill from below so that cold air does not lower the temperature of the soil in the pot.
If several plants have sprouted in a pot, each will need its own growing container.
The soil for replanting needs the following composition:
- humus - 4 parts;
- peat – 1 part;
- turf and leaf soil, sand - 2 parts each.
It is good to add crushed charcoal to the mixture. Transplantation into individual pots with a diameter of about 15 cm is carried out when the first leaf is 15 cm long. Drainage should consist of expanded clay mixed with charcoal. Its thickness is about 2 cm.
If possible, in summer the palm tree should spend fresh air. Such a “summer vacation” will benefit the tree.
Basic conditions for keeping date palm indoors:
- maximum illumination, but with diffused light; In its homeland, this tree can withstand the scorching rays of the sun without harming its health; in a room they can cause burns on the leaves; Even in winter, the daylight hours for a plant should not be less than 12 hours; it is extended by illumination with phytolamps.
For symmetrical development of the crown, every 14 days the pot with the plant is turned 180 degrees.
- air humidity about 50%;
- air temperature in summer is from 20 to 25 degrees, in winter it is reduced to 16 degrees to slow down the metabolism in plant tissues in conditions of lack of lighting;
- planting and replanting into soil for date palms that has a neutral or slightly acidic reaction;
- mandatory drainage;
- daily ventilation of the room;
- timely proper feeding and watering.
How to water correctly?
The watering schedule and amount of water directly depends on the time of year. In summer, water so that the earthen ball does not dry out - 3 to 4 times a week. During the period of forced rest from watering to watering, the earthen lump should dry out slightly. It is enough to moisturize the palm tree 1-2 times a week. Overfilling is harmful, so excess water from the pan should be poured out half an hour after the soil has been moistened. Special attention— quality of irrigation water. Ideally, it should be melted or clean rain, soft with a minimum amount of salts. Water temperature is about 33 degrees.
The plant responds well to spraying with warm, soft water, especially in summer. It will also require sanitary procedures - wiping the leaves with a damp cloth and then drying with a dry cloth. Once a month, the plants can be given a warm shower, but the soil in the pot must be covered so that it does not get wet.
Feeding and fertilizer
During the season of active growth - spring and summer, the tree is fed with complex fertilizer for palm trees every 14 days. In winter, the intensity of fertilizing is reduced by 2-3 times.
Palma responds very well to foliar feeding by leaves. They are made with the same fertilizer, but its concentration in the solution is reduced by 10 times. The frequency of fertilizing is from 3 to 1 time per month, depending on the vigor of plant growth.
Transplanting a plant
The most best time for palm tree transplantation - April. Young plants need this operation annually. After 5 years, replanting is practiced once every 2-3 years, and for plants older than 10 years, the top layer of the substrate is simply changed. The palm tree itself will tell you what it needs new pot- in the old one drainage hole roots will appear.
They are thick on the palm tree, but fragile. She has an extremely negative attitude towards their damage. For her, transplanting is a lot of stress; it needs to be done carefully, preserving the earthen lump as much as possible.
Choose a tall pot, and increase its diameter by 3-4 cm with each transplant. Drainage must be placed at the bottom of the pot. The soil is prepared in the same way as for planting young plants.
The date palm is replanted only by transshipment, without exposing the roots.
If this does happen, you will have to cut off some of the leaves to maintain a balance between the underground and above-ground parts. Even for not old plants, you can replace the top layer of soil - the palm tree will have more nutrition. This procedure is carried out once every six months.
Reproduction
The date palm reproduces by seed. In some species, shoots may appear. These include the Robelena date.
If the daughter plant has developed roots, it can be separated.
- Using a sharp knife, cut off the baby as close to the trunk as possible without damaging it.
- We transplant the division into palm soil, proceeding in the same way as when transplanting an adult plant.
- At first, you will have to put a plastic bag on the pot with a young palm tree so that it will take root better.
Do not forget to spray the young plant more often.
Pests and diseases of date palm
A date palm that has spent the summer outside may acquire spider mites, scale insects, or mealybugs. But even if the plant is constantly kept in room conditions, pests still appear. Insecticides, for example, Actellik, will help to cope with them. It is only advisable to treat the plant with it outdoors. From preventive measures A monthly warm shower with washing the leaves with soapy water is good. But the soil in the pot needs to be protected from it.
The main palm diseases are pink rot and spotting. Plants that are weakened by poor care usually get sick. Control measures are fungicides, but do not contain copper: Mancozeb, Ridomil.
- The tips of the leaves dry out - the air is too dry, you need to spray the plants more often.
- The leaves turn yellow - lack of moisture, you need to water more often.
- The leaves darken - waterlogging, reduce the amount of watering.
- The date palm stops growing - the room is too cold. At temperatures below 16 degrees, the roots function poorly, practically not absorbing nutrients. Another reason may be high acidity of the soil. It becomes acidic when watered with hard water. This plant will have to be replanted.
In general, caring for an indoor giant is not that difficult. Palm trees are very responsive to care and will delight the gardener good growth and healthy looking.
