Date palm — rules for transplanting and growing at home (90 photos)

Dates are an oriental sweetness, a taste familiar from childhood. For us, this is a treat for a holiday and an object of desire. As for the East, from where this sweetness is brought to us, the fruits of the date palm are everyday food, and not only human, but also excellent pet food.

In the Maghreb countries, camels and horses are fed with them. For the inhabitants of these countries, dates are about the same as for Russian people, oats, from which we make hercules for everyday food, and oatmeal cookies, which children enjoy, they also feed horses.

The only difference is that oats must be ground to the desired consistency before use, and dates are eaten as nature created them, except that the stone is taken out. Looking at the photos of the date palm in the brochures, you would never think that the fruits of this gorgeous tree are used for livestock feed.

Dates are an extremely nutritious product. One kilogram of dates contains 280 calories, they are rich in vitamins and trace elements. Dates are fruits growing on palm trees: trees whose habitat is the tropics.

Consequently, palm trees will never grow in the gardens of central Russia, unless, of course, there is a radical change in the climate of our country. According to the Russian proverb: even if you can't, but really want to, then you can, Russians have learned to grow date palms in the middle lane.

Summary of the article:

Even if not in gardens, but on windowsills, but still date palms grow as indoor plants. Despite the fact that the microclimate of a city apartment allows you to grow almost any plants in pots and tubs, the date palm even at home requires special attention, otherwise it will not be able to please us with its lush crown and sweet fruits.

You can get your own date palm by simply planting a stone from a date bought in a store in a flower pot. However, the question of how to grow a date palm from a stone is far from idle, because if the dates are old, their seeds may not come up.

In order for a sprout to appear from the bone over time, it must first be soaked in warm water for two to three days. The water temperature should be no colder than 30 degrees Celsius and no warmer than 35.

The composition of the soil for the date palm should include peat and sand, sand can be replaced with ordinary earth. The laying of the soil is carried out in three layers. The bottom layer is drainage, as which expanded clay can be used, peat is laid on the drainage. From above, all this is covered with sand or earth.

Seeds are introduced to a depth of one, two centimeters, after which they are watered. The germination of date palm seeds is quite slow. The young sprout will appear on the surface only for 20-25 days, not earlier and only if regular watering is carried out all this time and the ambient temperature is maintained at 20-25 degrees, not lower.

The sprout that has appeared must be transplanted into new soil. Instead of peat, ordinary earth mixed with humus should now be used. The top layer of the new soil should also be sand. When your date palm is in a pot, the newly transplanted plant needs to be watered abundantly and kept in a well-lit place.

However, despite all the love of the date palm for light, it tolerates direct sunlight poorly and in order to provide it with the opportunity for rapid growth, it should always be slightly shaded.

Rules for transplanting date palms

Palm trees are fast–growing trees, and in a year she will need a new transplant. Proper care of a date palm requires that a person has at least basic knowledge of crop production, since without them a person cannot have any idea how to transplant a date palm.

Since it tolerates transplants poorly, in order not to ruin a valuable plant, it should be incubated only in the spring, by the method of transshipment. In the process of transshipment, it is by no means impossible to shake off the earth from the root, transplanting the tree into a pre-prepared ground together with a lump of the land in which the palm tree grew earlier.

When the plant gets stronger and moves into its adult state, its growth will slow down, and it will no longer need an annual transplant, then transplanting can be done no more than once every 3-5 years.

Over time, the palm tree becomes so large that its removal from the pot will involve an inevitable injury to the plant. In this case, the problem that has arisen is resolved radically. The old pot is broken, and the palm tree, along with a lump of earth, is transplanted into a new pot of a slightly larger size. At the same time, the larger size of the pot means that it does not necessarily have to be wider than the old one, but much longer than the one in which the palm tree grew earlier.

Of course, regular transplantation, so to speak: "not for the health" of the plant, and it would seem that it is much more expedient to immediately plant it in the largest vessel and never disturb it again. But the point is not only in a new large vessel, but also in the fact that with each transplant the soil is renewed and the tree receives a fresh portion of substances useful for it.

Top dressing of date palm

With each transplant, a fresh portion of fertilizers is introduced into the soil. For every three liters of soil in a new vessel, one tablespoon of superphosphate is added. If the quality of the available soil leaves much to be desired, it is recommended to buy the necessary mixtures in flower shops that offer them in a fairly wide range.

Partial renewal of the soil in the pot should be carried out annually. For this purpose, from two to four centimeters of earth are removed from the top layer of soil and a new layer of the same thickness is poured in its place.

Fertilizers should be applied to the soil quite often at least once a month in winter and every ten days in summer. Organic and mineral fertilizers are applied during irrigation, adding one gram of potassium nitrate to one liter of water.

Regular watering (without fertilizing) in summer is carried out daily, in winter as the top layer of the earth dries in the pot.

Diseases and their causes

If the rules of care for the date palm are not followed, the plant begins to get sick. Date palm diseases can be very diverse, and have far-reaching consequences.

Thyroid is one of the most common diseases of date palms. Its symptoms are drying of the leaves and the formation of brown spots on their surface. The reason is insufficient humidity.

In order to rid the date palm of the shield, you need to wipe its leaves with a swab soaked in soapy water, then spray them with an actellic solution. The procedure should be carried out weekly at least four times.

If the soil in the pot is dry and there is low humidity in the room where the palm tree is located, the tips of the leaves begin to turn yellow. More frequent watering and spraying of the plant will help to eliminate the problem.

Quite often, new shoots of palm trees begin to dry out, their base rotts, and they themselves fall out of the socket. The reason for this lies in the lack of light and waterlogging. In order to cope with this disease, it is necessary to move the palm tree to a brighter place, as well as reduce watering and spraying, sprinkle rotten places with tetracycline. See also: installation of drains.

If the growth of the palm tree has slowed down, then it follows that the palm has outgrown its pot and it lacks living space and nutrients. In this case, the tree must be transplanted without disturbing its earthen coma, since its violation can aggravate the situation.

White spots on the leaves, the so-called mealybug, are easily removed with a swab soaked in alcohol. In addition, the leaves will not be prevented by treatment with anticocidal agents.

If brown spots appear on the leaves of a date palm, it means that the air in the room is dry, and cold water was used when spraying it. Installing a container with wet expanded clay next to a palm tree will help to correct the situation.