The Grass Doctor

New to Indoor Palms (have a Pygmy Date Palm) and I have a few questions?

My first excursion to a big box store after my wife telling me that she would like to have a palm tree in our apartment didn't turn out to well. I was told to go with a majestic palm and it will do well indoors and will only get about 8 foot. After some research I found out that they are very hard to keep indoors and will attain a size over 20 foot or more. Also, this majestic palm has a millipede infestation. So back to Lowes it goes last night. I get my refund and after doing some more research we had picked out a Pygmy Date Tree. Read that they do well indoors, don't get too large/slow grower and it's pretty much what my wife wants. An indoor palm that looks like an outdoor palm. Get to Home Depot and they have a huge selection of the dwarf pygmy palm in a couple sizes. The first ones we look at have about 7-8 trees all bunched up in I guess a 8 inch pot or so. That's a guess as they were so bunched it was hard to really see them all. So I get some help and the lady seems very knowledgeable. She brings me back to where most of their palms are kept outside in direct sunlight. These pygmy palms are nearly as bunched, at most only 4 total in a pot. So I ask her to pick me out a decent looking one, as most of what I'm seeing have some brown ends, or the leaves of the fronds look as though they are turning reddish-brown. She picks me out what looks to be the best out of the bunch (less of what I just mentioned) and told me that it really just needs some fertilizer. I buy it, a 12 inch pot, all purpose potting soil and palm fertilizer. I haven't repotted it yet as I will do that tomorrow. It has some thicker looking roots at the top of teh soil, whiteish in color, so I figure it needs to be repotted. Now to my questions... the pot that I have has 4 trees in it. Can I seperate them into single trees or should I just leave them as is? Was the lady correct about the coloration of the leaves? If not, what can I do? Any other hints you can give me on this palm? I'm from the north and I never kept a palm tree before. So this really is all new to me with palm trees. Since we live in an apartment, we're not able to plant one outside in a yard to enjoy, so this was my alternative.

Public Comments

1. You are to be commended for going about this in a methodical way. You were absolutely correct to bring back the Majesty Palm for the reasons you cited and more. Your Date Palm is a much better choice, as long as you have a sunny location right in front of a window to keep it inside. If you cannot provide that much light, then your Palm options are Parlor Palm (Chamaedorea Neanthe bella), Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa) or Kentia Palm. The latter two are quite expensive but hold up well in low light. I know it seems to you that your Date Palms looks crowded all together. But that was done on purpose so you will have a much fuller looking plant. If you prefer to have a single specimen plant in a pot by itself, then you should buy one that was grown that way. Yours can be separated, but like major surgery, it is very traumatic and you may lose all four of them. I strongly recommend you not attempt separation. Likewise, the exposed surface roots are not a cause for concern. At this time it would be a mistake to repot your Date Palm as it is trying to adjust to its new environment and it does not need the additional stress of repotting. In addition, you cannot tell at this point of it really needs a larger pot. Plants do best when they are quite potbound and more plants are lost due to unnecessary repotting than any other cause. Water your Palm thoroughly and then wait until the surface of the soil feels very dry. Then water thoroughly again. If after a couple of months you find that your Palm needs water every few days, then you can consider moving it up one pot size. That would be a 10", not a 12" pot, which is too big. The longer you can delay repotting, assuming it does need a larger pot, the better acclimated to its new environment it will be. Date Palms develop discolored leaf tips for a variety of reason, but lack of nutrients is not one of them. Improper watering is the most common cause. Using hard tap water is another cause. And inadequate light is a third cause. Lower fronds are always in the process of slowly dying back, so if the tipping is limited to the lowest (older) fronds, don't be too concerned. Just be sure the newest growth is healthy and not tipping. You must be alert for spider mites because they love most Palms, including Date Palms. You can email em for a copy of my article on Palm care and on indoor plant pest management. wcreed@HorticulturalHelp.com
2. The palm that you have may be 4 seedlings that have been grown together, or it may be one plant that has multiple stems, as the Pygmy Date Palm will do this, especially when mature. I would not separate them, as this will cause them major stress, due to their roots being inter-twined. I'd keep them together and re-pot if they are pot bound - it sounds like they need it, as you've bought the kit to do this. They could be split, and I would do this on my nursery, if absolutely necessary, but as a home palm it will stress it, and you'll not likely get plants that look great for some months, Palm leaves do typically dry out at the end, where they're in a dry hot environment and not managing to transport the water quickly to the leaf tips - in big stores like Home Depot, Lowes etc they don't always get the best attention, and they may have been shipped from distance away and dried out whilst in transit. So you've got the healthier of the plants. If you don't like the multiple trunks, consider changing again to a single trunk plant, but your plant should be good for a few years indoors - perhaps you could sell it on if it gets too large in the future, as it should have increased its value. Depending on where you are in the north, you may be fine with this plant outdoors in summer time, as this will allow rain to clean the leaves etc, as well as allow it some more light. We don't all have outdoors space for plants, so that may be an option. I'd go for a slow release feed if possible, and you can also get specialist palm fertiliser, as palms typically need micro-nutrients that are either absent from standard feeds or not in appropriate balance. This would be helpful in the longer term. Your palm will need good light, though beware of the drying out that can sometimes occur when plants are indoors and temperatures rise. Keeping your plant fairly evenly moist will help your plant take up sufficient water to prevent it drying out, though if you ever notice it starting move it to a slightly shaded spot, though still with very bright light - that said, do give it a good drench when you water, so that the soil gets completely wet, and then wait until it's started to dry at the surface before watering again. Misting with water will give it a temporary increase in humidity and I sometimes keep mine with a dish of water underneath - so that the roots are not standing in the water, but on top of pebbles - as this will allow water to evaporate evenly through the day. Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob