How to grow a date palm from a stone at home, growing instruction + photo

Many city dwellers like to experiment with overseas fruits: they will put orange in a pot seeds, then a pomegranate seed... Often plant a date seed, hoping to get dates right on windowsill. Unfortunately, this is impossible, but it will work out to grow a decorative tree - a palm tree.

Will the date palm grown from dried fruit kernel be fruiting?

Date palms adorn the halls and offices of various institutions. If the apartment is not very crowded, you can get it at home. It is important that for this it is absolutely not necessary to buy an adult plant: you can get it almost for nothing by planting a bone from an eaten fruit and properly caring for it.

Growing a date from a stone in a city apartment is not very simple, but getting a neat tree in a few years is quite possible. True, it will not even get leaves earlier than in two or three years. Maybe sometimes it will bloom, but it will not work to wait for the fruit. Indeed, even after many years, the palm in the apartment will only grow to the ceiling, and under natural conditions, date palms reach a height of 10-15 meters.

They begin to bear fruit no earlier than in ten years and only if there is a suitable pollinator nearby. It is unrealistic to observe all the necessary conditions in the apartment, so the date palm planted only as an ornamental plant.

How to plant a date seed at home: instructions with photos

Like any experiment, planting a date at home requires accuracy, care and compliance with all necessary rules. The whole procedure can be divided into several mandatory steps. First you need to prepare the bones. It is not difficult to choose a ripe date and extract a bone from it, but it takes a long time to prepare it for planting. The fruit should be fresh or dried, but not boiled. Of course, for the success of the experiment, you need to take more than one seed (by the way, their germination is maintained for at least three years). Untreated seed can germinate up to six months; in order to significantly accelerate this process, the bones must be carefully prepared.

Preparation includes:

• rinse with running water;
• keeping in water for several days for swelling;
• warming up for two days in a container with warm water (most conveniently in a thermos) in the presence of several grains of humate;
• processing the bones with sandpaper (to facilitate germination).

Subsequent work consists of the following steps.

1. Germination of seeds. You can plant the prepared seeds immediately in the ground, but it is better to germinate them before the roots appear. For this, the bones are placed in moist cotton wool, placing them in any covered dishes. Keep the dishes in a warm place (for example, near the battery), constantly monitoring the cotton: it should not dry out. Instead of cotton wool, you can use any similar material (for example, sawdust), and if you take a hydrogel, it will be much longer to keep the necessary humidity.
   

   When several seeds sprout, they can be planted, the rest are not worth it

2. Soil preparation. Soil for growing palm trees can be bought in the store (now even special formulations are sold even for these purposes). With self-preparation, you need to create a light, loose mixture. It may include sawdust, sand, humus and peat. Before planting, the soil is disinfected by spilling a pink solution of potassium permanganate.
   

   Finding the right soil in the store is easy

3. Planting bones. For planting seeds, you can use any pots with a height of the soil layer of at least 10 cm, which is poured over a two-centimeter drainage layer (from any small pebbles). Hacked bones are planted in each pot one at a time. A seed is planted in the center of the pot to a depth of about 1.5 times its length, vertically. On top, it is advisable to put a little moss and cover the pot with glass or film.
   

   The bone is planted vertically, protecting from breaking off the spine that has appeared

4. Growing seedlings. Until sprouts appear, the pots are kept in a bright place at a temperature of about 35 ° C. Regularly spray the soil with water. After emergence, the glass is removed. Further care consists in careful periodic watering. The temperature can gradually be lowered slightly, but in any case, the palm should grow warm.
   

   The emergence of sprouts occurs in the same way as when growing vegetable seedlings

5. Transfer. A seedling in a pot is grown to a height of about 15 cm. After that, it should be transplanted into a more spacious container. Such a transplant is initially performed annually in mid-spring. The transplant pot should be 4–5 cm higher than the first. A layer of drainage is also laid at its bottom in the same way, using the same soil. The transplant technique should be such that the roots are completely unaffected. The palm is removed from the pot with a lump of earth (well-watered well in advance), after which a certain amount of soil can be gently shaken off. Put the tree in a new pot and fill the voids with soil, while the height of the planting does not change. Damaged leaves, if any, can be carefully trimmed, but in no case can the top be damaged.
   

   Not only the first, but all subsequent transplants are made with a lump of land

In the future, caring for a palm tree does not present great difficulties. It consists in periodic moderate watering, top dressing, transplantation into more solid containers. Keep the tree in a warm sunny place.

Video: growing date palm trees

It is not difficult to grow a date palm from a stone, but this process is long. In a few years, leaves will appear on the tree, then it will decorate the apartment for a long time, but you should not expect the appearance of fruits on it.