Date palms can be propagated in two ways. However, you need a lot of patience if you want to grow a date palm from seeds yourself. It's a little quicker if the palm tree produces shoots that you can simply cut off and pot up.
How can I propagate a date palm?
There are two methods to propagate a date palm: growing from seeds or through saplings. Seeds are sown in seed pots and kept moist; in the case of shoots, they are separated and planted in pots. Both methods require patience and warm locations.
Two methods to propagate date palms
You can grow a date palm both vegetatively - i.e. via shoots - or from seeds.
However, vegetative propagation is only possible if the date palm produces shoots on the sides.
Growing from seeds is very time-consuming, but it usually works well.
Growing date palm from seeds
You can get date palm seeds commercially. If your date palm flowered and later produced fruit, you can also try harvesting the seeds from it. However, this often doesn't work. Therefore, it is safer to use purchased seeds for propagation.
- Prepare cultivation pots
- Pre-swell seeds
- place in the ground and cover
- set up warm
- keep moist but not wet
The cultivation pots should be deeper than normal flower pots because date palms have long taproots. The seeds are very hard-shelled and must therefore be soaked in lukewarm water for at least a day.
Ideally place the pots with the seeds in a bright, not too sunny place where the temperature is around 25 degrees. When the seedlings have reached a height of ten centimeters, they are repotted into new pots with palm soil.
Using shoots for propagation
Many date palms develop new shoots on the sides in spring. You can safely cut these off and use them to propagate the date palm.
Place the shoots in deeper nursery pots. Place the containers as brightly as possible but not sunny. The cuttings root best when the soil temperature is quite high. Keep the soil evenly moist, but make sure that no waterlogging develops.
Do not fertilize in the first year
You must not fertilize the seedlings in the first year as there are sufficient nutrients in the seed shells.
Tip
On date palms, you can only cut shoots or brown leaves. The palm tree only has one point of vegetation. If you remove this, the date palm cannot grow any further and will die after a while.
