How to plant dates to grow a palm tree?

Planting dates with your own hands and watching how a real palm grow out of a small bone is interesting. Exotic tree will become a real decoration of the house. To implement the plan, you need to know the features of growing a date palm. Follow the recommendations and everything will work out!

Will a seed sprout from an ordinary date?

Many experimented by eating a date and sticking a bone in a pot. But shoots from it did not appear. The thing is that the date tree is not an ordinary plant.

To germinate a date seed, you need to know some subtleties:

• The date stone can sit in the ground for up to 4 months. The rate of germination for the most part depends on the quality and variety of the date, as well as on the time of planting.
• Date palm - a slow plant, for its cultivation will have to be patient. It may take 3 to 5 years before the first split sheet appears.
• Palm trees grown at home, below the "street" and rarely grow above 1.5 m. In addition, they do not bear fruit.
• For germination, it is better to take non-thermally processed fruits, fresh or dried, of large size.

It is worth noting that in practice, caramelized dates, fried, in chocolate and others, sometimes give shoots. Apparently, a tight bone reliably protects the core.

Of great importance are the conditions of detention:

• temperature condition;
• humidity;
• substrate quality.

The soil should be warm and moist, but ventilated enough to prevent mold. If the sprouting is organized correctly, the spine will appear on the 3-4th week, and the first leaf - by the end of the second month.

Dates date discord. Palm trees - and fruits - look completely different depending on the variety. Canarian, palmate and Robelain dates are considered decorative. The latter is cultivated as a houseplant, dried fruits are not made from it.

From left to right: sugar date, rocky, Canarian, Robelain, palmate.

2 ways to plant a bone

It is best to plant dates in early spring - in March or early April. Whatever planting method is chosen, you need to think about the soil, the size of the pot and the greenhouse.

• Substrate.

A loose and light alkaline soil is suitable for a date palm. You can buy ready-made earth mixtures in a specialized store or make it yourself. For this, turf and leaf soil, humus and sand are mixed in equal amounts. Or take 4 parts of garden land, 2 parts of sand and 1 part of peat.

• Pot.

It is important for a palm tree to choose a pot according to size. To begin with, you should use small containers - up to 0.2 l. It is better if the pot is deep, because the roots of the date grow down. At the bottom there must be holes and drainage from expanded clay, polystyrene or walnut shells.

• Greenhouse.

A greenhouse is needed to preserve heat in the soil at first, until the seedlings sprout. In her role can be a regular bag, film, glass. But it’s better to immediately make a good greenhouse with ventilation: cut off half of the plastic bottle and make holes on the sides of the heated needle. It is better if the holes are located on two opposite sides, but at a different level (on the one hand higher, on the other lower).

Landing after pre-soaking

The advantage of this method is that you can see with your own eyes the process of root sprouting.

So what you need to do:

1. Peel the bone from the pulp.
2. Wrap it in 3-4 layers of gauze.
3. Put in a shallow pot.
4. Pour the settled water so that it barely covers the bone.
5. Cover the pot with a greenhouse and put in the warmest place in the house.
6. Check the bone daily and add water to the initial level as moisture evaporates.
7. Plant a bone in the ground when the root grows 1.5–2 cm.

The date seed gives a seedling on the opposite side of the shovchik, approximately in the center. At this point, you can notice a small convex point. A spine will appear from it.

Landing a bone directly into the ground

Many consider pre-soaking unnecessary. In addition, the root often grows into gauze and breaks off when trying to unravel it.

How to plant dates in the ground?

1. Peel the bone from the pulp.
2. Moisten the soil.
3. Place the bone in the ground vertically to a depth of 1.5–2 cm.
4. Sprinkle with earth and pour over with settled water.
5. Install a greenhouse on top.
6. Place the pot in a well-lit, warm place.
7. Water the stone daily.

Dates are planted immediately in separate containers. Otherwise, their roots are intertwined and break off when trying to plant seedlings in different pots.

Seedling Care

All the rules for caring for a date palm come down to one thing: “Keep your roots in the water and the crown warm.”

• Watering.

The date is hygrophilous. It is necessary to ensure that the soil is constantly moistened, but not wet, so that the roots do not rot. In summer, the plant is watered every day, and the green mass is also sprayed. In winter, watering is reduced to 2-3 times a week.

• Temperature mode.

Palm trees need stable heat. For good growth, they need a temperature of 25–27 degrees.

• Lighting.

The plant loves sunlight. In the summer, many people take the pot out onto the balcony, however, direct sunlight can cause burns on the leaves. The palm should be a little shaded.

• Top dressing.

Decorative dates are fed 4 times a year: in October, March, May, July. He loves complex nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizers and special fertilizing for palm trees: "Green Paradise", Pokon, Bona Forte, Palm Focus. You can also make a nutritious mixture at home from dried banana skins (grind) and ash (dilute 1 tablespoon in a liter of water).

In the winter months, the date palm does not grow.

Transfer

The date has a fragile root system. When transplanted, she often suffers, and then the seedling dies. Therefore, it is important to wait until the plant gets stronger and the pot becomes really small for it. A palm tree is transplanted no earlier than a year later, when it gives 2-3 leaves.

How to do it right?

1. Moisten the earth slightly.
2. Remove the plant from the old pot with a clod of earth.
3. Fill a new pot (0.5–0.7 L) with palm substrate approximately 2/3.
4. Put a lump of earth with a seedling at the bottom, and holding it with your hand, sprinkle with the remainder of the substrate.
5. Water the date palm and care for it according to the recommendations given above.

The date palm does not like "moving", so it can be difficult to survive a transplant.

In no case do not break the bone. She supplies nutrients to the sprout for a while.

After transplanting, reduce watering by 2-3 weeks and after the specified time, feed the plant.

Growing dates from seed is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. You need to follow the recommendations and be patient. In the first year or two, the plant will look like hard grass, and only after about 5 years it will turn into a real indoor palm.