How to grow a date from a stone in a regular pot

Today, there are two ways to decorate a home or office with a tall spreading date palm. The easiest option would be to simply buy a plant of the desired size and appearance, but more economical and interesting is to grow it yourself. But how can this be done in a climate that is far from tropical?

Content:

• Selection of seeds and their preparation for planting
• Conditions for growing date palm
• Transplant stages: from seed to palm
• Date tree care rules

Selection of seeds and their preparation for planting

Any work on growing plants always begins with the selection of seeds and the creation of the necessary conditions for life. How to grow a date from a stone? You need to choose a variety suitable for growing your palm at home. It is very easy to do this - just find any dates that have not been heat treated.

It is best to take fresh dates for this, but dry fruits, which are freely sold in the markets, can also be used.

But before you buy dried dates for seedlings, you should ask the seller if they have undergone additional cooking in sugar syrup. If there was such a heat treatment, then the seeds will no longer germinate.

Preparing seeds for planting:

• After the dates are selected, the seeds must be freed from the pulp, rinsed and slightly dried. How many seeds should I take? At least 6-10 pieces. Many of them will not sprout at all, and some of those sprouts that still please the gardener will die in the first few years.
• Now clean bones must be placed in warm water for a couple of days and kept in the sun. Experienced gardeners are advised to do this in the winter season, when the plant still does not need as much sunlight as in the later stages of cultivation. And so that all the time, while the bones of the date are soaked, there is no rot or infection, the water should be changed 1-2 times a day.
• Once the seeds have settled a little, you can pierce or rub the outer shell with sandpaper. The bones are very hard, and in order for water to penetrate inside, it is better to deliberately violate their integrity. But you do not need to erase the entire layer - one small area is enough. After that, the grains are again sent to a jar of water, where they should ripen for another 2-4 days.

You can also hurry up the process of ripening in another way: for a few minutes, place the bones ready for planting in hot water with a temperature of about 80 degrees. How do you know if the seeds are ready to be planted in the soil? They will swell slightly.

Conditions for growing date palm

Before planting the prepared date bones, you need to make a few simple preparations:

• Find the best indoor date palm spot
• Choose a suitable pot
• Pick up the soil

All palms - tropical plants... They are used to sunlight and a certain amount of humidity. Of course, this does not mean that you need to breed a swamp in the plant's tub. But frequent watering, like direct sunlight at least 3-4 hours a day, needs to be provided. It is best to grow dates on the south side.

And here the main difficulty lies in the fact that the date palm is a tree up to 30 meters high. Of course, under conditions of growth indoors, it will never be higher than 2-3 meters, and even up to this value it will grow for more than 5 years.But so that the development of a tree does not harm, it must receive sunlight in the right amount throughout its life. And if at the very beginning young sprouts can be kept in a pot on the windowsill, then later you will have to find your own sunny corner in the house for the date palm.

As for the pots, there are no special recommendations for their choice. The main thing to consider here is that at the very beginning, the palm tree grows into the root, and only then throws out the leaves. At an early stage, all date bones are planted in one large bed, and only then each will need their own tub.

You can buy soil for planting seeds. It is sold in flower shops and is labeled "for palm trees", but it is better to make it yourself.

To do this, mix raw sawdust, peat and sand in equal proportions 1: 1: 1.

Other types of soil cultivators such as perlite can be used. There should always be drainage at the bottom of the pots. Further, as the palm grows during transplantation, the composition of the soil will have to be changed several times.

Transplant stages: from seed to palm

Despite the fact that without proper preparation of the seeds for planting, the date tree will not rise at all, it can be ruined at each of the important stages. Therefore, everything must be done correctly throughout the life of the palm tree:

1. Ripe seeds are planted vertically in one large tub in prepared soil. At the same time, they do not need to be deeply buried and strongly crushed, it is enough only to lightly sprinkle them with earth.
2. From above you need to cover with sphagnum moss, or you can make a mini-greenhouse from a plastic or glass jar. However, moss will help not only create a suitable temperature regime, but also protect the bone from pests.
3. At this stage, the bones must be constantly kept warm at a temperature of about 30 degrees and high humidity.
4. The first shoots will appear only after one and a half to two months. However, if there are no results even after three months, the bone should be excavated and checked. It may have soured or turned out to be unviable.
5. Only after the young date palms have grown to a height of more than 10 cm can they be planted. Each tree needs to be transplanted into a pot with a diameter of 9-12 cm, while the composition of the soil for the tree changes. Now this is 4 parts humus, 2 parts of sand, 1 part of peat and 2 parts of turf and leaf land. Drainage and irrigation requirements are the same.

Until the tree reaches 5 years of age, it will have to be transplanted once a year, and later only as it grows, which will be indicated by the roots sticking out of the ground.

When transplanting, the felt layer formed by the roots will always need to be trimmed.

Only in this way will it be possible to obtain the maximum survival rate among young date seed palms.

Date tree care rules

In order for the palm to be pleasing to the eye all the time, it should be properly looked after. What does a date palm like? Like any tropical tree, it simply adores:

• sunlight
• Moderate humidity
• Soft loose soil
• Occasional showers or wiping the leaves with a damp cloth
• High air temperature
• Space: The plant needs a lot of space, and nothing should block the light.

Anything outside the scope of these recommendations can harm the palm tree. How do you know if a tree feels uncomfortable? Its leaves began to turn black. Most often this happens due to the lack of sunlight or with low watering. But a draft from the window can also bring plants to disease... Therefore, it is impossible to allow a sharp change in temperature in a room with a date tree.

As soon as the first symptoms of an uncomfortable life for a plant appear, mistakes in caring for it should be corrected.

Sometimes for this you only need to increase the humidity in the air by spraying the tree from a sprayer with just water. In some cases, you will need a small top dressing in the soil, it is best to buy it in specialized stores. With proper care, the date palm will delight the eye for many years.

More information can be found in the video.