The date palm is an exotic that can be increasingly seen in the apartment. The simplest thing is to buy a ready-made tree. But it is not cheap, a change in growing conditions will not affect the palm in the best way: it will take a long time to recover after the move. A tree grown from a stone will be adapted from the very beginning to the specific conditions of the apartment. You also need to think about the fact that it will not always be small. Over time, an adult plant up to 2 m high with wide spreading leaves will need a lot of space.

A bit of biology

In the genus of dates of the palm family, according to various sources, from 14 to 17 species. But the real date palm, which gives tasty and healthy fruits, is the date palm. This plant is not found in the wild, which cannot be said about its relatives — 12 species grow in the tropical and subtropical zones of Pakistan and Africa. For more than 6,000 years of cultivation, the palm date has been cultivated. By selecting seedlings obtained from germinated seeds, and then breeding, about 5,000 varieties have been created. Biological features:

1. tall tree — grows up to 30 m with an average trunk diameter of 80 cm;

2. the plant is dioecious, pollen remains viable for a very long time, pollinated by the wind;

3. the crown of a palm tree has up to 60 pinnate leaves up to 6 m long, they are resistant to dust and wind;

4. the harsh conditions of deserts and semi-deserts have formed endurance — the tree is able to tolerate both high and fairly low temperatures, the limit is minus 14 degrees;

5. the lack of moisture made the date palm drought-resistant, a very deep root system helps the tree to feed on moisture from the lower soil horizons;

6. it has adapted to the heat: since in direct sunlight the cells responsible for the growth of all organs do not divide, the palm tree grows at night;

7. the tree is accustomed to dry air, excessive moisture at the time of flowering and fruit filling reduces the yield;

8. palm is a long-liver, there are cases of fruiting trees even at the age of 200.

When grown in a room, plants create their usual conditions. In an apartment, a tree of this size, of course, will not grow. It most likely will never bloom, and if this happens, there will be no fruits, since a male pollinator tree is required. But even without fruits, the palm tree is surprisingly decorative. But first you need to sow the seeds. They show the best germination in the spring.

Seed preparation

Growing a date palm or phoenix, as it is called in its homeland, begins with the selection of seeds. The area of ​​the plant is the countries of the Middle East and Africa. But you don’t have to travel that far for the bones. All you have to do is walk to the nearest store. But not every date is suitable for growing:

1. it should not have been subjected to heat treatment;

2. stored no longer than a year after collection.

When choosing, pay attention to the size of the fetus — the larger, the better and the absence of signs of disease on it. If the fruits are dried or candied, this does not preclude their use for palm cultivation.

Since seed germination is unknown, it is better to plant several seeds at once. As soon as the pulp is removed from them, the seeds are washed from its remnants. A piece of fruit in the ground can rot, involving the seed in the process. Now it needs to be awakened by saturating it with moisture. To speed up the swelling, the seeds can be scarified by rubbing on sandpaper, or immediately soaked for 3 days in water heated to 30 degrees. Its temperature must be maintained constant, which is easiest to do in a thermos. Water is changed several times a day. When they do this for the last time, they add a growth stimulator, diluted according to the instructions. You can immediately sow the seeds in the ground, but the seedlings will have to wait a long time. The process is easy to speed up if the seeds germinate:

1. soak them between two moistened cotton pads placed in a transparent closed container;

2. an alternative is a zip bag with hydrogel or wet sphagnum moss;

3. with any method of germination, the seeds are placed in a warm (35 degrees) place with diffused light.

The lid of the container or zip bag should be opened daily to ventilate and make sure that the seeds do not dry out. As soon as they peck, it’s time to sow.

Landing

The choice of container depends on whether the seeds were germinated or not. Swollen bones are easier to plant all together in one container and settle in separate pots immediately after germination. At the beginning of growth, small palms do not need much space. If the seed has already sprouted, it will be better in an individual container. In both cases, there should be drainage from expanded clay or shards at the bottom. It is important that it closes, but not very tightly, the drainage hole — if fast-growing roots penetrate there, it will be difficult to remove them without loss. And the palm tree is extremely negative about their damage.

As a soil, you can use the substrate for palm trees from the store, and universal soil will do. Self-planting mixture is prepared from 1 part of peat and 3 — sand, adding any baking powder — vermiculite, perlite.

Landing technology is extremely simple:

1. prepared soil is poured into a pot with drainage laid at the bottom, not reaching the top by 5 cm;

2. cover it with washed coarse sand with a layer of 4 cm;

3. moisturize;

4. the bone is placed vertically, deepening by 1 cm, germinated seeds are handled with particular care;

5. lightly sprinkled with sand, covered with wet sphagnum moss and exposed to a bright, warm place (25 degrees).

Now it remains to wait for the shoots. This process is not fast, it takes from one to 3 months, germinated seeds sprout faster. Sometimes a seed does not wake up for a long time and rises only after a year. All this time, soil moisture must be maintained.

Further care

As soon as a sprout has appeared, the seedling must be transplanted into a separate high — 10-12 cm small container, if this has not been done before. Under such conditions, the plant will have a wide leaf.

palm tree conditions

This plant is not very whimsical, but with proper care it grows much better.

Lighting

It is in their homeland that palm trees grow under the scorching sun, in a room such lighting is harmful to them: diffused, but fairly intense light is required. In addition, in the hot sun, part of the pot warms up more strongly, this negatively affects the development of the root system. In winter, the daylight hours are adjusted to 12 hours with the help of a phytolamp. In order for the plant to form symmetrically, every two weeks the pot with it is rotated around its axis by 180 degrees. The date palm grows best on the east window.

Temperature

For comfortable development, a palm tree requires a certain temperature range:

1. 20-25 degrees in summer;

2. 20 — in winter.

If possible, in the warm season, a pot with a palm tree is taken out into the street, setting it in the lacy shade of the trees. Soil temperature is also important for the plant. It should not overheat in summer and overcool in winter. To prevent this from happening, a container with a palm tree can be placed in a kind of «thermos» — a pot of larger diameter, the walls and bottom of which are lined with sphagnum moss.

Air humidity

It should not be too high, but dry air will not suit the plant either. The optimum air humidity is about 50%. If it is lower, a pot with a palm tree is placed on a pallet covered with expanded clay, where water is poured. But the bottom of the pot should not touch it. Need a plant and water procedures:

1. in small palms, from time to time, when they become dusty, they wipe each leaf with a damp sponge;

2. for large plants — arrange a warm shower, covering the soil in a pot so that it does not wash out;

3. once or twice a day, spraying is carried out with soft water at a temperature of 33 degrees, using a fine sprayer.

In winter, during the heating season, these operations are carried out more often to compensate for the reduced air humidity. A palm tree needs ventilation, but a draft is harmful to it.

Watering

Although the palm tree is a drought-resistant plant, it loves moisture. Water the plant depending on the season:

1. in the summer — abundantly 3-4 times a week, preventing the complete drying of the earthen coma;

2. in winter, growth processes slow down, watering is done less often — 1-2 times in ten days, drying the earthen ball almost completely.

When watering, they follow the rule — the lower the temperature, the less often it should be moistened. The next day after it, a shallow loosening of the soil in a pot necessarily follows. Half an hour after moistening, the water is poured out of the pan. For palm trees, the quality of the water is very important — it should be soft and have room temperature or a little higher.

top dressing

It is necessary to actively feed the palm tree in spring and summer, using a fertilizer intended specifically for this species or complex soluble mixtures for decorative leafy plants. The ratio of batteries: N:P:K-3:1:3. Root top dressing is carried out after watering with clean water once every 2 weeks, foliar top dressing — with the same composition, but diluted 10 times monthly. In winter, 1 top dressing per month is enough.

If the palm lacks micro or macro elements, this is reflected in its appearance:

1. light green leaves with stunted growth indicate a nitrogen deficiency;

2. bronze-brown spots on the leaves, first old, and then young — a signal of potassium deficiency;

3. a wide yellow stripe forms along the edges of the green leaf — the palm tree lacks magnesium;

4. sometimes, at the initial stage of growth, young palms lack manganese, in which case they grow poorly, chlorosis appears on the leaves.

It is easiest to eliminate the deficiency of some element with the help of foliar top dressing.

Transfer

Young date palms need an annual transplant, the first is carried out as soon as shoots have appeared. The best time to move to a new pot is the beginning of an active growing season, usually April. Starting from 5 years old, you can replant after a year, and in adult plants, simply change the top layer of soil. When pouring water from the pan after watering, examine the bottom of the pot — if the roots have begun to develop drainage holes, it’s time to replant the date.

The soil

The easiest way is to buy a ready-made substrate for palm trees. The plant feels good in a substrate prepared from an equal amount of sand, humus, grain soil, compost. For every 3 liters of the mixture, add a tablespoon of superphosphate. Adding a small amount of perlite and 1 cm pieces of charcoal will make the soil looser. You can also prepare a more nutritious mixture:

1. 2 parts of clay soddy soil;

2. the same amount of leaf humus;

3. 1 part each of peat, sand and rotted manure;

4. some charcoal.

If, during transplantation, the composition of the soil changes dramatically, even in the direction of improvement, this will negatively affect the plant.

Pot

A feature of the date is the growth of the roots deep into, and not to the sides. She determines the choice of the pot: it should be high and not too wide. With each transplant, a pot is chosen 3-4 cm larger than the previous one, this also applies to height and diameter. The material is plastic, it is easier to pull out a plant from such a pot for transplantation, if necessary, it can be cut. Roots in plastic containers suffer less from temperature changes.

Transplant algorithm

In order not to injure the roots of the plant, it is simply transferred to a new container, preserving the earthen ball as much as possible:

1. dates are watered on the eve of transplantation;

2. at the bottom of the new pot lay out drainage from washed expanded clay — a quarter of the height or a little less;

3. pour a small layer of planting mixture on top;

4. the walls of the old pot are kneaded so that the plant is easier to pull out;

5. set the date in a new pot so that the root neck does not deepen;

6. all voids are filled with the prepared planting mixture, slightly compacting it;

7. soil is watered.

The first feeding is carried out no earlier than after 2 months. If the roots are accidentally damaged during transplantation, 1-2 lower leaves should be cut off on the plant.

Diseases and pests

If the plant was put outside in the summer, most likely, pests have already appeared on it. From time to time they start up on those palm trees that are constantly in the room. For plants are dangerous:

1. 
   mealybugs — they suck the juice from the leaves, first settle in their axils, then spread to the entire plant, including the root system; insects — white with a large number of legs and a waxy coating similar to cotton wool on the body; the honeydew they secrete is an excellent breeding ground for the sooty fungus; mealybugs prefer low air humidity;

2. 
   spider mites first they appear on the stems of palm trees, then they inhabit their leaves, sucking out the cell sap from them; ticks are very mobile and easily move from flower to flower; their sizes are small, it is difficult to see the spider mite with the naked eye, but the traces of its vital activity are clearly visible — the places of punctures on the leaves, especially from the inside; if a colony of ticks has wove a web on the underside of a leaf plate, several generations of pests have been living in it; ticks love dry air and low temperatures;

3. 
   thrips — small mobile insects with an elongated body, lay their eggs directly in the tissue of the leaf blade, thrips can be found on the underside of the leaf along the veins, where brown-brown spots appear, they look whitish on the front side;

4. 
   scale insects — for palm trees, first-age larvae are dangerous, covered with a wax shield, they look like small brown-golden or whitish growths; attaching to the leaf, they suck out its juices, red-brown or yellowish spots are visible at the site of the lesion;

5. 
   aphid often appears on plants that were taken outside in the summer, sometimes it enters the apartment through the window during airing; the small oval body of the sucking insect is colored green, black, orange or gray, aphids seem to merge with the stem and leaves; you can guess about its presence by the honeydew that the insect emits;

6. 
   nematode — the pest lives in the soil or on various parts of plants — these are tiny worms that cause great harm to palm trees: first yellowish and then brown spots form at the site of damage, which blackens over time, the leaf dies off.

How to fight

With a small number of pests You can try folk methods of getting rid of them:

1. insist 15 g of chopped onion in a liter of water under the lid for 5-7 hours, strain, spray;

2. Grind 20-30 g of dandelion roots and insist in a liter of warm water for 2 hours — spray solution;

3. Grind 50 g of fresh hot pepper and boil in 0.5 l of water, spray after cooling and filtering;

4. effectively gentle rubbing of the leaves with medical alcohol, after 5 minutes the plant is given a warm shower, protecting the soil in the pot from getting wet.

Some pests — worms and scale insects are collected by hand using a cotton pad or a hard brush moistened with soapy water.

If these measures do not help, insecticides and insectoacaricides are used.approved for indoor use: Fitoverm, Lepidocid, Bitoxibacillin, Aktaru.

Works well with spider mites Bitoxibacillin, Apollo, Akarin, Flumite. Preparations with a higher hazard class are used to treat palm trees, taking them out into the open air. For better efficiency, a plastic bag is put on the palm pot and tightly tied. It is not removed for 2 days, all this time the plant should be in the shade. The fight against spider mites does not end with palm processing. The soil, the outer part of the pot, all nearby plants, a window sill and window glass need it — the pest can lay eggs far from its habitat.

Prevention

Palm loves water treatments. If you do them regularly, protecting the soil in the pot from getting wet, most pests, with the exception of the scale insect, are simply washed off. Washing the leaves with soapy water is more effective. Spider mites can be destroyed if the palm tree is irradiated with ultraviolet light 2 times a week for 2-3 minutes using a special lamp. It should also illuminate the lower part of the leaves.

If a nematode is found on a palm tree, the plant cannot be helped.

Diseases

The cause of most palm diseases is improper care. Before starting treatment, it must be corrected. Most plant diseases are caused by fungi:

1. 
   root rot is caused by a fungus of the genus Fusarium; leaves turn yellow, then darken and wither; during the revision of the roots, areas of rot with an unpleasant odor are found; you can help a palm tree only at the beginning of the disease: the roots are washed with water, all rotten parts are cut off, washed with a solution of fungicides — “Kuprozan”, “Hometsin”, sections are treated with crushed coal;

2. 
   if dark spots appear on the young tissues of the plantand then a white coating — a fungus of the genus Penicillium is to blame, spraying with a solution of copper sulfate will be required;

3. 
   leaf spot pathogens — fungi of the genera Rhizoctonia and Pythium; the disease is manifested by rot of the base of the leaf, if it is not treated, the palm tree can be left completely without a crown, spraying with Bordeaux liquid will help;

4. 
   weakened plants fall ill with pink rotespecially if they were cut with a non-sterile tool, rotting begins on the leaves, in advanced cases it can spread to the tree trunk, treatment — removal of diseased parts, treatment with fungicide solutions.

Growing problems

As a rule, they are associated with a violation of care:

1. brown spots on the leaves with stunted growth — the plants are overflowing or the water is too hard;

2. the tips of the leaves dry and turn brown — low air humidity, lack of water, low temperature;

3. the lower leaves dry up and turn brown — they have already outlived their time and need to be cut;

4. leaves turn yellow — not enough moisture or nutrition;

5. if the palm tree is not constantly topped up, the lower leaves may hang, the plant will lose its decorative effect, they will no longer be able to rise, they will have to be tied up;

6. poor growth — too low temperature in summer, high acidity of the soil, lack of nutrition, cramped pot;

7. pale spots on the leaves — traces of burns, the palm tree needs to be shaded from direct sunlight.

If the leaves of the whole plant turn brown, the root system rots due to excessive moisture. If severely damaged, the plant will die. Sometimes beginner flower growers are perplexed by the structure of the leaves of a young palm tree — they grow narrow and do not open like a fan. This phenomenon is temporary and is associated with the age of the plant, usually by the age of five the crown takes on a standard form. Good care and annual transfer to a new pot will speed up the process.