A keen florist grows indoor plants not for the sake of obtaining material benefits in the form of fruits, but to have a “piece” of nature and dozens of sympathetic caregivers in their home.
Having replenished the ranks of the green wards with a date palm, you cannot exactly provide the conditions for fruiting, but you will be able to create a tropical corner with it on its heated loggia.
In the article we will talk about date palm at home: care, planting, transplanting and beneficial properties.
Home and garden care
How to care for date palm at home and in the garden? Date palms love the abundance of the sunwarm atmosphere even at night, sufficient watering.
Negative temperatures are destructive for them, therefore, in our regions, the garden landscape with the feathery leaves of a growing date can be diversified only with the help of coiled plants.
Take out the palm tree into the air with an overnight stay in late spring and summer, not forgetting to follow the weather forecast. In case of threat of frost dates return to a warm room.
In a home setting, it is easier for a growing date to provide a comfortable environment. Seedlings and adult plants will grow faster windows facing south or southwest.
Seasonal Care Calendar
In winter date requires:
- temperatures not lower than 15 degrees;
- lack of cold air flow;
- weekly one-time watering with slightly heated water in moderate volume;
- additional lighting (an additional lamp can not be installed if the plant is in a room where the light comes on for several hours at dusk);
- typical feeding once a month.
In the summer palm must:
- provide systematic watering (every 2-3 days);
- place in a corner where drafts do not reach;
- create a comfortable air humidity (achieved by spraying once or twice a day);
- shading from direct midday sunlight;
- make hygienic “washes” by wiping the leaves with a damp cloth (once a week);
- provide a lot of fresh air (take out to the balcony, terrace, garden);
- protect from typical pests, diseases (preventive spraying with a fungicide, ordinary water will help - sufficient moisture will save from a spider mite).
A photo
Date palm: photo at home.
Trimming stem segments to improve plant shape
Dates don't like haircuts and may die due to artificial thinning of the crown.
Features care after purchase
Before leaving the flower shop with dates in hand, need to find out:
- when the plant was watered the last time;
- when was the last feeding;
- what nutrient mixture it was supported.
Bringing home the plant you need inspect and make sure that in the axils of the rosettes of leaves there are no thin cobwebs, red “points” (signs of a tick), other insects. If there are no drainage holes in the pot, they are made with a hot nail. Although it is better to transplant a date into a slightly larger capacity, and at the same time update the soil and fill up a sufficient amount of drainage.
If the plant is kept all the time in the pavilion, then take out the pot right on the street, the balcony should not be. By being in the open air they are taught gradually, adding an hour each day.
Lighting
Phenicia likes plenty of sunshine.
If the summer was particularly hot, the plant is protected from burns by moving the pot to the back of the room or to a less illuminated place.
Bloom
Only a person who gives the plant the opportunity to see a blooming date grow to 12-15 meters.
Floral brushes at dates resemble lush panicles with a multitude of stalks, hung with fragrant-smelling small buds of white or yellowish color.
The first five, or even a dozen date leaves have a xiphoid shape and a corrugated surface. Because of this two - three-year palm trees more like a young growth of corn. Fan leaves begin to form in the fourth and even fifth year of growth.
Temperature
Phenicia feels good when the temperature around him does not fall below 15 and does not rise above 35 degrees.
Air humidity
Dry air creates a comfortable environment for the development of spider mites. Avoiding his attacks will help two spraying leaves plants clean softened water. The sprayed water jet should resemble fog.
Watering
Dates need plenty of water, but do not like modulations. To provide the plant with a comfortable watering regime, it should be grown in a pot with good drainage and moderately moisture-retaining soil.
Irrigation water should be:
- soft;
- separated;
- room temperature or slightly higher.
Indicative watering schedule:
- in summer once every 3 days (if the top layer of the soil is dry);
- in the winter once a week, in a reduced portion.
Soil and soil
Date stones are germinated in the soil for palm or sawdust hardwood trees.
Young and more mature plants are grown in pots with soil that has next composition:
- sand (2 parts);
- turf soil (2 parts);
- leaf earth (2 parts);
- peat (1 part);
- humus (4 parts).
Fertilizers
To support the plant in the summer every two weeks watering is accompanied by the introduction of a diluted solution of complex fertilizers. With a cold snap, vitamin supplements are given no more than once a month.
In the absence of the opportunity to purchase a drug suitable for palm trees, the plant is supported ash extract, which is mixed with phosphorus and potassium.
The hood is produced by infusing a glass of ash in a liter of ordinary hot water. The resulting infusion is diluted 1 to 10 with water for irrigation.
Planting and transplanting (choice of pot for plants)
How to plant and transplant a date palm at home? Plant bones from the fruit should be immediatelyas eaten by the pulp of dried or dried date. Leaving the bone for the future should not be - they quickly lose their ability to germinate.
The easiest way to sprout a bone summerwhen around the pot do not need to create greenhouse conditions.
In winter time capacity with germinated seeds need to be kept at a temperature of 25-30 degrees.
Ten centimeter sprouts can be seated in separate “apartments”.
The pot must be taken not less than 15 cm in diameter, tall, narrow, with holes in the bottom.
Date palms do not like "relocation". If possible, a sprouted seedling is planted in a pot, where the plant will be comfortable for several years in a row.
Here is a video about a date palm: care at home and growing from a stone.
When can I transplant a palm tree?
The transfer of the date palm to the new ground is performed:
- on reaching the first leaf of 10 cm (seedlings);
- in the spring, with the onset of the first fine days and the intensification of the movement of sap in plants;
- with a clear bay of the plant, when the leaves turn brown (an immediate transplant and a reduction in the volume of the irrigation portion are shown).
When is it best to plant a palm tree?
In the warm seasonwhen the stress of the disturbed plant will not be supplemented by the negative effect of temperature uncomfortable for dates (if the plant is grown in a normal city apartment with unstable heat supply to the batteries).
These videos tell about caring for a date palm in room conditions, about when the leaves of the date palm bloom, when it is necessary to pick and more.
And then two video clips about the features of caring for a date palm at home.
Beneficial features
The fruits of dates are shown:
- anemic, suffering from tuberculosis, engaged in heavy physical labor, despondent, lactating and pregnant, cores, hypertensive patients who have problems with the gums, weakened and had a cold;
- as a useful dessert;
- when the diet is poor (there are many mineral substances in fruits, a complex of easily digestible vitamins).
The older the plant, the more decorative.
In the homeland of dates from the fruits of palm trees are preparing drinks, flour for bread, fried dishes.
Young dates are quite sensitive to violations of the irrigation regime, often dying during transplantation. But if you set a goal to create comfortable conditions for the plant, which is expressed in normalized watering, sufficient illumination and the absence of drafts, the palm that has taken root will take root and in five years time will please many sprawling leaves.
