How to Care for Palms

Growing Palm Trees

Anyone can grow their own palm tree at home with almost no cost. This is good news because buying one adult palm will cost you quite a lot in our country. Much more advantageous is purchasing less expensive seeds, where you can successfully grow several and thus cultivate multiple beautiful indoor palms.

For these reasons, we recommend starting to grow your own palms (Phoenix dactylifera). You can simply put palm seeds in a pot and wait until they germinate. However, this is a very uncertain method and will likely bring disappointing results. If you want a more reliable way to get seedlings from seeds, try the following procedures:

Germination Method:

When I first started planting my own palms from seeds, I was very disappointed with my poor success rate. Most books about palms are generally somewhat vague on certain specific details. So I had no choice but to try my own experiments. As a result, I now have a system with which I achieve good results with most species I've ever tried to plant. If you've had problems with palm germination in the past, give this a try.

• Soak the seeds for 24 hours (sometimes longer in case of very hard seed surface). During these hours, change the water several times. Soak the seeds in a warm place, such as in the kitchen.
• Clean the seeds. Remove the pulp or hairs if possible. Fungi are a major problem with some germinating palm seeds. Although you can deter them with fungicides, this may not always be effective. Fungi love seed pulp, so you need to clean it thoroughly!
• Place the seeds in a sterile place that is not wet. The biggest problems I had when I started growing palms were caused by germination sites being too wet. This way, only lots of mould grew, but not palms. Today I use one measure - approximately 550ml of vermiculite (which you can get at garden centres), moistened in 30ml (about two tablespoons) of water. The resulting vermiculite should be completely dry to the touch. However, don't hesitate to add more water. I have germinated seeds in 10ml of water and 1 litre of vermiculite.
• Seal the seeds in an airtight container - for example in a PE bag.
• Place it in a warm location, say above hot water, a temperature around 32°C is ideal.
• Check the seeds daily. If the seeds are fresh, you may find that many species germinate in as little as one or two weeks, despite what you read in books that this process takes 2 or 3 months!
• When the root appears, carefully place the seeds in well-drained compost. For example, 50/50 standard growing compost and gravel. Keep it warm until the seedlings appear. When they do, place the palm in a warm and sunny spot. If your room temperature is quite cool, be very careful not to overwater the palm, because if the compost is constantly in a wet place, the palm will rot. If not, it will grow actively.

Palm Pests and Diseases

Many insect pests and palm diseases can attack and damage a palm, and in extreme cases, even destroy it. If a palm is attacked by insects or infected with disease during development, the palm's strength can be significantly reduced, and such a damaged palm may wilt completely. Cycads are less susceptible to pests and diseases, their hard leaves are only most vulnerable in the phase when they emerge and become hard.

In cold climates, attack by pests and diseases on palms and cycads is not as much of a problem as in tropical climates, where several generations of insects can multiply within a year and where there are a large number of diseases that thrive in heat and humidity. This is exactly the case with fungal diseases. Cold climates have the advantage that during the colder months many insect species die out. This period, during which many diseases do not spread, gives people time to act and take control.

Some pests and diseases are common to most countries, but each country has some that are typical only to their region. Therefore, mentioning all diseases is not possible in this section.

Pests

Insects and mites can attack palms and the damage causes growth of new atypical leaves. In older palms that are infested to the same extent as young ones, if they are, the damage is less visible.

Insects usually fall into one of two categories: those that cause damage by sucking sap from leaves and those that cause damage by chewing leaves.

• Mealybugs:

These insects are oval-shaped, approximately 2 mm. They are grey, light pink or light yellow in color with white wax covering their body. They multiply rapidly into large colonies that often look like white mold spots and feed by sucking sap from leaves and stems. They thrive in warm, humid places and can live in soil or on the plant. If they affect the palm bud, new leaves may appear damaged. They also tend to colonize on the underside or in the crown of cycads and again suck sap. Sometimes they may be associated with ants that feed on the honeydew they produce. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Mites and spider mites:

These sucking insects are usually invisible to the naked eye and multiply rapidly in warm and dry conditions. They tend to be on the plant unnoticed until signs of their damage are visibly obvious. They colonize on the underside of palm leaves, and sap sucking causes leaves to brown and fall off. European red mites and two-spotted mites are known to also attack the buds of some palms, causing their growth to stop. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Scale insects:

There are many species of these parasites that suck sap from palm and cycad leaves. They can vary in shape and color, and commonly occurring types are oval-shaped with armored shells and sometimes waxy to the touch, usually visible and stationary. While many species are specific to certain countries, some species such as white palm scale (Phenacaspis eugeniae), palm scale, soft brown scale (Coccus hesperidum) and pink wax scale (Ceroplastes rubens), are known to attack palms and cycads. Their damage is greatest on palms and can cause leaf yellowing and mold infestation in shaded areas. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Thrips:

Many species of thrips feed on fallen leaves or decomposing matter, while others will attack palms and cause significant damage. They are small in size and colonize on the underside of palm leaves, sucking sap from them, which causes the leaves to develop silvery-white spots. Adults fly from plant to plant, laying eggs. Young individuals feed on the palm, and then often move to leaves on the lower part of the plant, where they develop into adults so they too can lay eggs. They are particularly common after warm and dry weather. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Whitefly:

This insect resembles a small white moth and some species attack palms by infesting the underside of leaves and sucking sap from the plant. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Butterfly and moth caterpillars:

Many butterflies and moths do not feed at all, but lay eggs from which larvae develop, and there are a large number of insect larvae such as caterpillars that cause damage to palm leaves by living on or grazing on the foliage. Many can be picked off the leaves. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Other chewing insects:

Grasshoppers, locusts, earwigs, beetles and their larvae can attack palms during certain periods of the year. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label. Snails attack some palm species, particularly Chamaedorea species, by moving along the stem and feeding on the leaves. They can be physically removed. Use only products registered for the plant in question in your country and follow the label.

• Borers and termites:

These insects are known for causing damage to palms and cycads. Borers can bore holes into palm trunks and cause visible damage, but they do not threaten palms particularly if they are healthy. Termites can cause major damage to palms, attacking from underground and are difficult to control. In areas where they are prevalent, preventing destruction of nests is the best means, before they affect the plant. They also attack cycads that are unhealthy, attacking the roots and trunks. Wood lice behave similarly, attacking unhealthy cycads, feeding on their stems and decay that may develop.

Diseases

Diseases are often difficult to identify and it is common that nutrient deficiency is a symptom of disease. Cycads are relatively disease-free, but mainly they are sensitive to root rot when grown without good drainage. These diseases, which commonly affect palms, are mostly fungal or bacterial in type but viruses are also known. Diseases can spread through soil, insects or human contact, and when they occur, it is important to burn infected parts of the plant to prevent spreading and to avoid replanting where the soil is infected. If soil watering has been used to raise infected seedlings, because seedlings died showing clear signs of fungal attack or rotted, then the soil should not be used for the next batch of seedlings, as it is likely that the disease would also attack new seeds or plants.

• Damping off:

This disease can be typical for germinating palm seeds that have been grown in a greenhouse that is warm, humid and insufficiently ventilated. Seeds can easily succumb to rot shortly after germination or before they emerge or immediately after. Clean containers, soil and seed will help eliminate and prevent the spread of organisms responsible for damping off. Good ventilation should help and additionally fungicidal sprays approved in the EU for the plant in question can be used to destroy the fungus; follow the label instructions.

• Bud rot:

Regarding palms, this term has already been used - meaning internal and crown rot. Symptoms include wilting, yellowing and eventually wilted palm bud, the growing center, and thus the entire palm wilted. Bud rot is caused by mold or bacteria that enters the palm crown and infected tissue becomes a jelly-like mass. This can be caused by physical damage such as a storm that damages the palm's growing center or excessive water retention in the crown, which allows pathogens to enter. It can also be caused by insects on palms, such as mite infestation, which suck sap from plants, weakening their growth so that even new growth is weak and fungi can penetrate the plant. This can be prevented immediately after physical damage or if rot is detected in the initial stage, the solution is to pour a systemic fungicide approved in the EU for the plant in question (according to the label) or a general fungicide such as copper oxychloride into the growing point.