Planting and growing a date palm from a stone at home

The date palm will be a good decoration for the interior of any home. It is not at all necessary to buy this exotic plant - you can grow it yourself from the seed. How to plant dates correctly and care for the seedlings to get the desired result?

How to choose and prepare planting material?

First of all, you need to find a suitable bone. It is better to take several pieces at once: one of them will definitely come up. To do this, you need a ripe date that has not been heat treated. You can bring a suitable fruit yourself from a vacation spent in southern countries, or you can buy dried fruit in a store or at the market.

To increase the chances of seed germination at home, it is recommended to pre-process it. The fact is that the stone of a date is quite hard, and it is very difficult for a sprout to break through it. The preparation procedure will not only facilitate this process, but will also speed it up by a couple of months.

Optimal preparation plan

1. First, you need to carefully remove the date bone from the fruit. It must be thoroughly cleaned of pulp and rinsed under running water at room temperature. This will reduce the risk of seed rot in the soil. Then it is recommended to leave the planting material to dry for 24 hours.
2. The next day, you should lightly scratch the hard shell with a needle or walk along its surface with fine-grained sandpaper. Such artificial damage will facilitate the process of moisture penetration into the seed.
3. To make it easier for the sprout to split the sturdy shell, you can gently make shallow cuts with a razor blade or sharp knife. For the same purpose, the bone is poured over with boiling water.
4. For successful germination at home, cultivation of a date palm must be started by soaking the seeds in cotton wool or gauze. A small moistened scrap is placed in a small container (plate or plastic cup), a bone is placed, and then covered with another layer of wetted material. This will help to avoid a lot of moisture evaporation, which is necessary for seed germination. Cotton wool and gauze, if desired, can be replaced with a hydrogel or simple sawdust.

Place the container with the soaked bone in a warm place. For example, on a battery or solar window. But it is important to consider that high temperatures promote rapid evaporation of moisture. Therefore, the material must be regularly additionally moistened, not allowing it to dry out. After 7-10 days, it will be noticeable that the bone has swollen. It's time for her to land in the ground.

Pot and soil requirements

Growing a date palm at home is a fun process that involves several steps. Including, one should take a responsible attitude to the choice of soil and capacity, which will ensure the correct development of a young plant.

There are no special requirements for the pot. As the date palm grows, it will need to be transplanted into a larger container. For planting seeds, compact dishes are suitable: a plastic cup or a pot with a diameter of less than 10 cm.Do not choose a container that is too deep and high. In this case, intensive growth of the root system will begin to the detriment of the green part of the plant. The main thing is that there is good drainage at the bottom to maintain a suitable amount of moisture and ventilate the roots.

Advice

You can choose a beautiful planter that harmoniously fits into the design of the house. Palm trees look advantageous in stylized barrels, ceramic pots with aging effect.

The soil for the growth of the date must be loose, well permeable to air and water. To save yourself the hassle, you should visit a flower shop and buy special soil for palm trees.

Also, at home, you can prepare a suitable mixture yourself with a combined composition:

• sod land - 1 part;
• sheet - 1 part;
• humus - 1 part;
• perlite or fine sand - 1 part.

All components of the "recipe" of soil for planting a date palm at home are thoroughly mixed and placed in pots or containers. On their bottom, there must be through holes for the removal of excess moisture and ventilation, as well as a drainage layer - approximately 1 cm.

Planting process and care of seedlings

To plant a date seed according to the rules, follow the algorithm below.

1. Embed the planting material in prepared and pre-moistened soil. The depth should be approximately equal to the length of the bone.
2. Then, using simple polyethylene or a piece of glass, you need to build an impromptu greenhouse.
3. Put the container with plantings in a warm and bright place.

The further result of a botanical experiment depends on the literacy of care. To grow a palm tree from a stone at home, it will be successful, follow a number of simple rules.

• Ventilate the constructed greenhouse twice a day to eliminate excess condensation, because too high humidity will lead to decay.
• After the first shoots appear from the soil, the greenhouse can be removed - the plants must get used to the conditions of the house.
• Watering should be regular, but not excessive: it is enough to prevent the earthen coma from drying out.
• You shouldn't fertilize the date palm at this stage.
• When 2 full-fledged leaves appear, you can make a pick and, if several seeds were planted in the container, place each seedling in a separate bowl.

Sometimes seedlings at home have to wait up to three months. After the appearance of the first leaves, the plant actively forms the root system. Therefore, there is no need to be alarmed if the growth of the leaves is inhibited.

What conditions will a date palm like?

When the seedlings obtained from the date seed at home have taken up their pots, suitable conditions must be created for their active development.

The temperature in the room where the plant will stand should be at least 16 ° C. An exotic palm tree loves air humidity of about 50%, and it should not be placed near heating appliances - in this case, the flower may simply dry out and die. There should be no cold drafts at home.

Proper cultivation of a date palm requires regular watering. In summer it should be plentiful, and more rare in winter.

Advice

The plant will "say thank you" and for spraying from a spray bottle in the hot season.

It is imperative to carry out top dressing using organic fertilizers and mineral complexes for decorative foliage plants. In winter, it is enough to apply top dressing once a month, and during the period of active growth - from March to September - once every two weeks. Also, a young palm tree grown at home needs to be transplanted into a larger pot annually. When the plant is several years old, it is enough to carry out this procedure once every 2-3 years.

The best results are shown by growing on the western and eastern windows of the house. There the palm gets enough light. It must be remembered that direct sunlight can be detrimental to the leaves and provoke the formation of unattractive burns.

To grow a date palm at home, you have to be patient. But after a couple of years after planting, it will become a wonderful exotic plant. Young specimens will decorate the windowsill, and for adults with spreading leaves, more space will be needed.