If you want to grow a date palm yourself, you have to be very patient. It takes several years from sowing to the formation of the first fronds. Only the dwarf date palm is easier to grow yourself using saplings.
How can you grow a date palm yourself?
To grow a date palm yourself, you need germinable seeds, growing pots and loose, nutrient-rich soil. Allow the seeds to soak and sow them, then place them at 22-26°C and keep them moist. Germination can take several months.
Where do you get date palm seeds?
In nature, date palms bloom and develop fruits with seeds. When a date palm is grown as a houseplant, in most cases it does not bloom. The palm only blooms under very favorable environmental conditions and later produces fruits that contain germinable seeds.
If the date palm is blooming, you have to fertilize it using a brush. To do this, stroke each flower several times. To increase the chance of fertilization, grow several date palms.
You can also get seeds for growing date palms commercially (€5.00 on Amazon).
Sowing date palms
- Watering seeds
- sow in prepared seed pots
- cover lightly with soil
- very bright and warm
- keep moist but not wet
The seeds are hard-shelled and are more likely to germinate if you let them soak in lukewarm water first. You can also roughen it slightly with sandpaper.
Place the potty at 22 to 26 degrees. You should avoid direct sunlight, especially during midday.
It can take many months until the first cotyledon appears. So you need a lot of patience if you want to grow a date palm yourself.
How to continue to care for the seedlings
Once the first cotyledons have appeared, continue to care for them by keeping them moist and continuing to keep them in a warm location.
Growing dwarf date palms from saplings
Saplings often form on the sides of the trunk of dwarf date palms. You can separate these shoots and plant them to grow new date palms yourself.
Place them in loose potting soil. Don't keep them too moist. It is better to water more often, but more sparingly. You can tell whether they have rooted by the fact that new shoot tips are forming.
Tip
Compost soil, which you loosen up with gravel or sand, is suitable as a substrate for date palms. You can also mix in some expanded clay, lava granules or gravel so that the soil remains nice and loose even after a long time.
