Date - a plant from the Palm family. A guest from the tropics, the date palm tree is popular among flower growers and often decorates even urban apartments with its spreading leaves.
Description
Long and narrow leaves with unpaired feathers and a sharp tip emerge from one or more trunks. Even indoors, a palm tree can grow up to two meters. It blooms with “panicles” of pale yellow flowers, and bears fruit in fleshy berries. At home, this is impossible to achieve - only plants that have reached 10 meters in height begin to bloom, and two trees are needed for fruit ovary: a female and a male.
Types of Date Palms
Among the many types of date palms, it is worth noting those varieties that are used as home ornamental plants.
| View | Feature | Differences in Care |
| Palmate | The most common and fastest growing. In adult plants, a bare trunk. | You can grow from the seeds of ordinary fruits of the date purchased in the store. |
| Robela | Short and shaky. A whitish coating on the leaves of young plants. Often a few trunks. | It requires intensive lighting (12-14 hours a day), plentiful watering and moist air. Heat-loving. |
| Canary | Undersized. Large hard leaves of a bluish tint. The trunk is straight and thick. Spikes on petioles of leaves. | He likes bright, well-ventilated rooms. Requires a large layer of drainage and a high pot. Easily propagated by seeds. |
| Curved | Multi-barreled. White pile on the leaves. Spikes on petioles. Growth up to 8 meters. | Resistant to direct sunlight, no shading required. He likes moist air, frequent spraying is necessary. |
| Forest | The tallest, single-barrel. Spikes on petioles. Gray-gray leaves grow in groups of 3-4 pieces with a slope down. | Unpretentious and resistant to pests. It is frost-resistant. |
| Rocky | Single barrel. Spikes on petioles. Leaves are small and small. | It is frost-resistant. |
| Ceylon | Single barrel. Short bluish leaves with spines on the petioles. | Resistant to cool. |
Date care at home
The date is not a very whimsical plant, but several simple conditions for caring for it at home must be observed.
Lighting
Palma loves bright rooms, but does not tolerate direct sunlight. To avoid leaf burns, shading must be provided. Good for growing dates covered balconies and loggias, protected by curtains.
Air temperature
The date is sensitive to temperatures, and if in the summer it tolerates hot days, in winter it needs to be cooler - no higher than +18 ° С. Do not place the plant near radiators.
In the warm season, you can move the plant to the street. But it should be borne in mind that at night the temperature should not fall below +12 ° C.
Humidity
Since the palm tree comes from a tropical climate, it is accustomed to high humidity. Therefore, the drier the air in the room and the higher the temperature, the more often the plant needs to be sprayed. In the heat, large leaves can be gently moistened with a wet cloth.
Watering
Palms do not tolerate stagnant water, so a good layer of drainage is required at the bottom of the pot. For irrigation, settled water at room temperature is used, ideally rain or melt.
The frequency depends on the time of year. In winter, dates require less watering, and in summer - more often and more plentifully. At the same time, it is necessary to monitor the state of the soil, avoiding either waterlogging or drying out.
Top dressing
You can fertilize the soil every ten days in the summer and every month in the winter. To do this, 1 gram of potassium sulfur is added to a liter of water for irrigation.
Once a year, it is advisable to carefully remove the topsoil in the pot, replacing it with a fresh layer mixed with superphosphate fertilizers.
Leaf pruning
It is necessary to clean dried and broken leaves in a timely manner. It is undesirable to trim partially yellowed ones - they serve as a source of nutrients for the plant.
Transfer
The young date palm tree grows rapidly and should be transplanted at least once a year. Adult plants (over 5 years old) require this procedure once every 3-5 years.
It is advisable to transplant in the spring. It is strongly not recommended to choose autumn for this - the palm tree may die.
It is difficult to adapt to a new place, so it should be transplanted in accordance with step-by-step instructions:
- The new pot should be much deeper than the previous one, because the roots of the palm grow deeper than the breadth. Good drainage holes are required.
- Put drainage at the bottom of the pot - for example, expanded clay.
- The soil can be used ready-made in store or mix turf soil, sand and humus in equal proportions on your own, be sure to add 1 tablespoon of superphosphate fertilizers to 3 liters of land.
- In no case should you damage the earthen lump around the roots. It is necessary to clean only the top layer of the former earth. If the pot does not allow you to remove the palm tree together with the soil, it should be broken or cut.
- The plant trunk does not need to be buried in a new pot. The ground level should remain the same as in the old place.
Breeding
All types of dates are easily propagated by seeds, which can be purchased in stores. An ordinary palmate date can be grown from seed from a candied fruit bought at a supermarket.
Bone preparation
Immediately after extraction from the fruit or after purchase, the seeds are soaked in warm (+ 35 ... +40 ° C) water for 2-3 days. Water changes every day.
For planting, seeds are selected that descend to the bottom of the tank. Before this, the swollen seeds are washed with running water.
Soil preparation
In disposable cups, drainage holes are cut. A sterile land mixture is mixed, consisting of sheet earth, perlite and vermiculite in equal proportions. This mixture is poured into glasses (not to the brim!) And watered.
Landing
In order for the date to sprout faster, it is necessary to slightly open the outer shell of the bone. Then, the seed is vertically deepened into the ground (one for each cup) and sprinkled another half centimeter.
Care
Glasses with seedlings are placed in a warm (+ 20 ... +30 ° C) place and watered from time to time, avoiding drying out. Germination takes three to nine months.
As soon as the first shoots appear, it is necessary to provide them with bright diffused lighting - but in no case should they be placed in direct sunlight.
A transplant into a pot is done when the sprout reaches 4 centimeters.
Diseases and pests attacking dates
The palm tree, which is well looked after, is ill often. Here is a short list of diseases to which dates are susceptible, and how to treat them.
| Cause | Signs on the leaves | Treatment |
| Lack of nutrients | Yellowness. | Regular top dressing. |
| Hard watering | Water filtration for irrigation. | |
| Excess watering | Brown, the smell of rot. | Stop watering until the soil is completely dry. |
| Lack of moisture | Darkening at the ends. | Correction of conditions, change of place. |
| Drafts | ||
| Air is too dry | ||
| Watering with cold water | ||
| Fungal diseases | Gray or pinkish spots. | Fungicides are antifungal drugs. It is not recommended to use more often than once a week. |
In addition, the date palm can become an object of attack by pests:
- The spider mite causes the leaves to turn yellow, dry and curl, and entwines with a thin web.
- Mealybug sucks the juice from the leaves, leaving a white fluffy coating.
- Trips contaminates and dehydrates, leading to bleached spots.
- The scabbard sticks to the integument of the plant, drawing out the juice. It can be distinguished by brown tubercles.
- Nematodes are worms that live inside the leaves and cause their thickening, deformation and death. They are difficult to remove and quickly spread, so when they are found, the plant should be destroyed as soon as possible along with the pot.
CurvedMost insects can be removed in the following folk ways:
- Garlic infusion: 4 heads of garlic are lowered into 1 liter of water and kept for 5 days. The resulting extract is diluted with water and used to spray foliage.
- Tobacco infusion: 40 grams of tobacco are put in 1 liter of water, insist 2 days. Then add another liter of water and spray the plant.
- Soap-vodka solution: 15 g of liquid soap and a couple of tablespoons of vodka are diluted in 1 liter of water. Use once a week to wipe the leaves.
If the above methods are ineffective, it is necessary to treat the plant with agrochemical preparations, guided by the instructions.
It is recommended that you first try the product on one leaf of the plant to detect a reaction.
Before processing, the soil must be covered with a film in order to protect it from the ingress of foreign substances that may harm the composition of the soil.
Possible growing problems
Some flower growers are faced with a situation where the date stops growing for no apparent reason. This may be due to the following factors:
- Lack of heat. At air temperatures below +17 ° C, the roots of the plant cease to function correctly, and the nutrients necessary for growth do not enter the trunk.
- Incorrect soil composition. Palm does not like soil with acidity below 7 pH. Lack of manganese and iron in the ground may also be the cause.
- Pot too big. The aerial part of the plant will not grow until the roots fill all the free space.
Mr. Summer Resident informs: the use of date palms
In places of natural habitat, the date palm is a very practical plant. Its fruits, which come to us as dried fruits, are rich in amino acids and are used not only for food but also for medicinal purposes.
They also serve as animal feed. The date supplies people with wood, raw materials for the production of fabrics, valuable oil, and juice for the extraction of sugar.
Designers use this plant to fill empty spaces and zoning rooms. It fits perfectly into the interior, furnished in a modern style.
In esoterics, the date palm in the house is considered a sign of harmony in the family. She is credited with the ability to quench conflict situations and foster mutual understanding.
