✅ How to determine the age of a palm tree

Category: Care Published 09/01/2018 · Comments: · Reading time: 6 min · Views: 8,785

Palm trees are exotic for our region and more often such trees with unbranched trunks can be found on the pages of printed publications... or in tubs, but only representatives of decorative species. The latter are inferior to “wild” plants in almost everything - growth, fertility, crown size, but not beauty - a small palm tree can be incredibly pretty.

But the unusual tree is less familiar to flower growers and raises a lot of questions, including how many years does a palm tree grow and how can you get your own original tree?

Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) – tree of life

The scientific name of the coconut tree is 'Cocos nucifera'.
The word 'cocos' probably comes from the Portuguese word 'coco' (monkey), as the coconut slightly resembles a monkey's face. The word 'nucifera' is derived from Latin roots and means 'nut bearer'. Coconut belongs to the palm family. Recognizable at first glance, the trunks, wide at the base, end in a huge crown of plume-shaped leaves. The trunk of the coconut palm is gray and smooth, its surface covered with ring cracks left by fallen leaves. The growth of a coconut palm occurs in a very unique way, it all starts with fruits - coconuts, which, having fallen to the ground, begin to germinate. Thanks to the reserves of substances in the nut, the sprout that emerges from the nut begins to increase: first it becomes a rosette of small leaves, then they grow. During this period, the coconut does not have a trunk, only the leaves and bud of the palm tree grow; as soon as the bud reaches a certain size, the palm tree begins to grow in height. The formation of a coconut palm occurs in two stages - first the bud develops, then the trunk grows.

Before a coconut reaches a large size, and it can easily grow up to 25 meters, it remains young. Moreover, if you look at a young coconut tree, you will be surprised by its diameter, it is the same as that of an adult coconut. If you take the trunk of any other tree, you will see that a young tree has a trunk no thicker than a little finger, and when it grows, the base of the trunk increases greatly, and continues to grow throughout life - the thin stem turns into a thick trunk. In the coconut palm, the opposite is true, although at the base of the trunk of an adult tree there is also a thickening, but it serves exclusively for storing substances, it does not play any mechanical role - it is a storage of nutrients. At the age of five, a coconut is already capable of bearing fruit. If a coconut tree is not affected by disease or damaged by a cyclone, it can live up to a hundred years. By the rings on the trunk, which are located quite evenly, you can find out the age of the palm tree. Every year the palm tree produces the same number of leaves - this is a constant process and this is one of the reasons why the coconut tree does not tolerate periods of drought or rainy seasons very well - it is a tropical tree.

The branches of coconut palms reach a length of 4–6 meters. More or less curved, hard, emerald green permanent leaves without spines. The leaf crown has about 30 branches, the base of each almost completely covers the trunk and therefore the branches can resist strong winds. There are flowers in the axils of the branches. The coconut palm is self-pollinating, its female flowers located at the bottom of the spikelets have the shape of peas 2–3 cm in diameter, usually there are 20–30, but the number of peas can reach several hundred. Male flowers, more numerous, occupy the upper part of the spikelets. After pollination, the fruit appears. Coconut growth lasts from 4 to 10 months. The coconut palm bears its first fruits at the age of 5–6 years and reaches its maximum yield by 15 years. A mature palm tree can produce 50 to 500 coconuts per year. After 50 years, her productivity drops noticeably. The fruits can be collected green, picking them from palm trees, or picking up mature nuts that have fallen to the ground. It will take almost a whole year before the nut reaches full maturity.

Thanks to the structure of the nut, the coconut palm conquers large spaces. Consisting of fiber and very hard, the nut is able to float well, so if a coconut fallen from a palm tree ends up in the sea, it is easily carried away by sea currents. Sooner or later, the nut will end up on the shore and begin to sprout, so coconut palms are able to colonize entire beaches in all countries of the world. It is clear that in this way coconut palms cannot get into the mountains, and besides, they would hardly withstand a mountain climate; coconut palms do not survive where the average annual temperature is below 20 °C. If you see a coconut tree, then the average annual temperature in that place is above 20 °C. A coconut can germinate even after several months of floating; with a passing current, it can travel 5 thousand kilometers, but this alone cannot explain such a wide distribution of coconut palms on the planet. People brought them to some parts of the world, such as the Wallis Islands in the South Pacific. They probably came to the Fiji Islands from Southeast Asia 2.5 thousand years BC, and a thousand years later to the islands of Tonga and Samoa. And then in the 4th century they settled in the Marquesas Islands, in the next century on Easter Island, and a hundred years later in Hawaii. Floating on waves or in holds, these nuts reached the west coast of Panama in Central America in the 14th century. Beginning in the 16th century, Portuguese and Spanish sailors introduced them to West Africa and North America. In the Caribbean, the first coconuts appeared in Puerto Rico in the early 17th century. Since that time, coconut palms began to spread throughout the Lesser and Greater Antilles.

The liquid contained in the unripe nuts is drunk as a soft drink. During World War II, this liquid was used as saline solution. But, you can drink coconut juice only at the first stage of coconut ripening, but you should not drink the juice at the last stage of ripening, otherwise you may get an upset stomach. Coconut is rich in potassium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper and zinc. The nut has very high nutritional value. The pulp of the ripe nut is edible and is used in many tropical dishes due to its characteristic aroma. The dried pulp, which is 60% lipid, is called 'copra' and is used to make oil used in the preparation of margarine, soap and monoi, a scented oil. Craftsmen use absolutely everything - the trunk, nuts, branches of the coconut tree. Lanterns, drums, sculptures and a huge number of other interesting things - masters compete in ingenuity.

The coconut palm is widely used in Polynesia and is even used to build ships. Immigrants from Southeast Asia - the peoples who settled this area in Oceania 3.5 thousand years ago, crisscrossed all of Polynesia, delving further into the Pacific Ocean to land and populate the islands of the Polynesian Triangle. The people of Wallis retained the ability to build and sail long pirogues. The mast and sail, handmade using ancient techniques, are attached to boats made from the trunk of a coconut tree, which can reach a length of 10 meters.

The coconut palm is a very hardy plant, however, a long-standing disease native to Cayman Island palms is beginning to spread throughout the Caribbean. The disease begins with blackening of the fruits and inflorescences, then the palm branches turn yellow and fall off, leaving the trunk completely bare. This disease causes great damage wherever it appears, but the direction of its spread cannot be accurately predicted. It is probably carried by some insects, but so far the only way to combat it is to cut down diseased palm trees.

author - Alexey Eskin (Kyiv, Ukraine),

graduate of the Faculty of Geography of the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute. Works on one of the Ukrainian television channels. Has a series of publications in travel and wildlife magazines.

Dedicated to the ancient goddesses

Goddess Ishtar

From ancient times, legends have come to us about the tree of life, symbolizing immortality and renewal. This symbol has a very real prototype. For the peoples of the Middle East and Arabia, the date palm served as the living embodiment of the “cosmic” tree. The fruits of this plant, according to the ideas of the ancient inhabitants of Western Asia, were eaten by the gods and the first people. The palm tree meant fertility and prosperity; it is no coincidence that it was dedicated to the mother goddess - the Sumerian Inanna, the Phoenician Astarte and the Babylonian Ishtar.

The date palm has been familiar to people for so long that now no one remembers which people, where and when they first used it as an agricultural crop. Its wild ancestor is also unknown to science. Scientists believe that agriculture began with gardening. The date palm became one of the first garden trees.

Unknown peoples learned to fence wild palm groves, care for young trees, and protect them from being eaten by animals. Ancient gardeners, through trial and error, came up with artificial pollination, which helped them get a good harvest.

A clay relief from the time of the Assyrian king with the unpronounceable name Assurnasirpal, which depicts the process of pollination of a date palm, has survived to this day. Priests in bird masks were doing such an important job! They tied male inflorescences to the crowns of female palm trees. This means that the inhabitants of Mesopotamia already 6000 years ago knew the structure and purpose of the flower. European science discovered sexual reproduction in plants only in the 17th century.

Archaeologists have established that dates were grown in Egypt back in the Neolithic era, and on the shores of the Indian Ocean - at the end of the Neolithic - the beginning of the Bronze Age. From there, this culture came to the coast of the Persian Gulf and the southern Mediterranean. Information has been preserved that in the 5th millennium BC. e. Date orchards were cultivated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Wheat, spelt, barley, beans, grapes and date palms are the breadwinner plants of many ancient civilizations. Dates were well preserved and served as a high-calorie food. Herodotus, Theophrastus, Strabo and Pliny wrote that date palms were grown from Babylonia to the Canary Islands.

The private life of the queen of oases

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) belongs to the palm family (Arecaceae). It grows in regions with hot climates and tolerates only short frosts. And during flowering and fruit ripening, temperatures below 18C can lead to the death of not only the crop, but also the plant itself as a whole. The palm tree does not tolerate shade and dampness, but it is resistant to drought and grows on saline soils. This tree tolerates floods that occur in North Africa and South Asia during river floods. Most often it is planted in oases where the groundwater level is relatively low. The Arabs say: the queen of oases, the palm tree, has her head bathed in the fire of the sun's rays, and her feet in the water of underground springs.

Palm trees grow quickly - by 35-50 cm per year, and by 15-17 years they reach a height of 6-7 meters. The average height of these trees is 12–32 meters. Their trunk is almost straight and “shaggy” from the bases of fallen leaves. The apex is crowned with a rosette of 13-15 pinnate leaves. They can reach a length of five meters.

Long, panicle-like inflorescences emerge from the leaf axils. Moreover, on one tree they can only be of one sex. The flowers are fleshy, fragrant: female flowers are white, male flowers are creamy and waxy. From 6 to 10 thousand flowers can bloom on one palm tree.

When the fruits begin to ripen, the inflorescences bend under their weight. Ripe dates are oblong berries of yellowish-brown or reddish-chestnut color, 2–7 cm long, with sweet, nutritious pulp, which contains a hard seed with a longitudinal groove on the side. For them to ripen, it is necessary that the air temperature reach 35-40C during the day.

Dates are easily absorbed by the body and in their nutritional properties are superior not only to other fruits, but also to cereals. And in terms of taste, they belong to the highest class dessert fruits.

What is so valuable about dates? Firstly, a large amount of natural, easily digestible sugar (fructose, glucose, sucrose), which serves as an excellent source of energy for the human body. Secondly, there are 23 types of amino acids that are not found in apples, oranges and bananas.

Male flowers

Thirdly, healthy vegetable fats, pectin and fiber. And, in addition, there are many microelements and vitamins.

Palm trees live 150-200 years and bear fruit every year, starting from about 7-10 years of age, but a full harvest can only be obtained several years after the first fruiting. The palm tree is capable of bearing fruit until a very old age, but upon reaching 60-70 years it becomes too tall for pollination and harvesting.

Date trees are cultivated all over the world: in southern Europe, Western Asia, India, North Africa and South Africa, the USA, South America and Australia. In total, there are about 100 million date palms on the planet, which annually produce 4.5 million tons of fruit. The world championship in date cultivation (70% of the crop) belongs to Arab countries. Among them, Egypt traditionally takes first place. The second, until the mid-90s, belonged to Iraq, where 33 million date palms grew. However, due to the blockade and wars, more than 14 million trees died in this country.

The Green Nurse of Egypt

In Ancient Egypt, the date palm had not only important agricultural, but also religious significance. It was grown in the Nile Valley thousands of years before the first hieroglyphs and pyramids appeared. The remains of a mummy wrapped in palm leaves, found in the province of Sharqiya, date back to the predynastic period in the history of Egypt (XXXV century BC). And at the bottom are tubs for beer brewed by the Egyptians in 3450 BC. e., pieces of dates were found.

As an offering to the dead, dates were left in the tombs of the kings of the first dynasty (XX century BC) in Giza. And bouquets of palm leaves, as a symbol of resurrection and rebirth, were left in tombs by the Egyptians, from the time of the pharaohs to the period of the collapse of the Roman Empire. Dates were often used to pay hired workers. Columns topped with patterns of palm leaves and walls with carved images of palm trees adorned palaces, temples and tombs. Palm trees, along with figs, bitter oranges and plane trees, grew in temple and palace gardens.

Date palms were a symbol of the great sun god Ra. Hathor, the goddess of the sky, giving joy to hearts and fertility to the earth, appeared to the Egyptians in the form of a date palm. The pharaoh himself approached her with a request for patronage and protection. Hathor was also revered as the goddess of love and fun, music and dancing. Her temples were traditionally surrounded by date groves.

Ripe date palm fruits

The lunar god of wisdom, writing, knowledge and science, Thoth, who divided time into years and months, was also depicted with the leaves of a date palm. In ancient Egypt, this tree served as the first calendar: every month one young leaf appears on it and one old one dies.

During the sacred ceremony in honor of the pharaoh, who had crossed the thirty-year mark in ruling the country, the king of Egypt was supposed to hold bundles of petioles of palm leaves in his hands. It was believed that the deity who patronized the pharaoh made as many notches on them as the number of years allotted to the latter for life and reign.

Date palm fruits were harvested in two ways in Ancient Egypt. According to the first - and simplest - they were dried for two or three days in direct sunlight or in the shade. The Arabs call such dates tamr. A more complex method helped retain more moisture in the fruits. To do this, dates were placed in baskets made of palm leaves and kept under pressure for several days. The Arabs call the fruits prepared in this way agua. Both methods have survived to this day and are widely used.

The date palm was grown in ancient Egypt not only as a fruit and sacred tree. The roofs of houses were made from its trunk. Baskets were knitted from leaves. Shoes for priests and temple servants were made exclusively from palm leaves. In total, about 360 types of products were made from date palms. Among them is palm wine - arak (araqe), which is still produced in rural areas of Egypt by Coptic Christians. In addition, palm beer was obtained from palm trees, which served as one of the components of the embalming agent.

Since ancient times, the Egyptians had two traditional sweets - go and dipsa. The first, containing 40% sugar, was prepared from beans and served to the pharaoh and priests. And the second, made from palm juice containing 15% sugar, was a favorite delicacy of common people. Ancient Egyptian medicine also widely used the date palm to treat various ailments.

Tree of the Righteous

The Jews also considered the date palm to be the tree of life. Mention of it is found on the first pages of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east... and the Lord God made a tree of life grow out of the ground in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:8-10). The ancient Jews first became acquainted with the culture of date palm cultivation during Egyptian slavery. Having settled the “promised land,” they adopted many agricultural traditions of both the Egyptians and neighboring peoples. Biblical Jericho was called the city of date palms. The palm tree became a common tree in the gardens of Palestine. At the end of the autumn harvest, the Israelites gathered in Jerusalem and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles by building themselves temporary huts from palm branches. The celebration lasted seven days and ended on the eighth with a solemn meeting. This number was reminiscent of the years of wandering in the desert.

The date palm has long been a symbol of female beauty and sexuality. Girls were named after her (Tamr, Tamar or Tamara) so that they would be beautiful, slender and fertile like a palm tree. Just like the Egyptians, the ancient Jews made wine from dates, which had not only a utilitarian, but also a sacred meaning. He was sacrificed to Jehovah in the Temple of Jerusalem. From Judaism, the symbolism of the date palm migrated to Christianity.

The branches of the palm tree became a symbol of Christ the King and became an indispensable attribute of Palm (in the northern countries - Palm) Sunday. According to legend, on this day Jesus solemnly entered Jerusalem, and the disciples and townspeople greeted him with palm branches as a king. In this case, the branches of the palm tree not only symbolized peace and righteousness - they, according to tradition borrowed from the Greeks and Romans, were used to honor the triumphant (hence the expression “palm of the championship”).

In ancient times, it was believed that the palm tree always grows straight, despite many adversities. Therefore, it has become a symbol of endurance and courage in the face of adversity. Christians depicted holy martyrs with palm branches in their hands.

Several Christian legends about date palms have survived. So, one of them talks about the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. When Joseph and Mary set out on their journey, they did not take food with them. When they reached Egypt, they saw several tall palm trees. And then a miracle happened: the trees bowed to the feet of the baby and allowed his parents to collect the fruits.

Another legend tells about Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. He helped the Holy Family cross the river. When Christopher carried the baby Jesus, the weight on his shoulders seemed to him equal to the weight of the whole world. Having reached the shore, Jesus commanded him to stick a staff made from a palm tree into the soil, and it turned into a fruit-bearing date tree.

In the Middle East and Egypt, palm groves surround fortress-like monasteries. The symbolism of the date palm is especially popular among the Copts - Christians of Egypt. The word “pilgrim” also owes its origin to the date palm, the branches of which were brought from Palestine as a sign of peace and a reminder of the Holy Land.

The Prophet's Favorite Tree

The date palm is mentioned 20 times in the Quran. And in 15 cases it is spoken of as a gift from Allah to people. The founder of the Islamic religion, Muhammad, considered milk and dates to be the best food available to man. In addition, he believed that dates are an excellent medicine. His closest followers shared the same opinion. Muslims believe that the date palm sheltered Mary when she gave birth to Jesus, and that, on the advice of an angel, she nourished herself with dates during labor and after childbirth. And the first texts of the Koran were written on palm leaves.

There are several legends about palm trees and the prophet Muhammad. One of them says that in his old age the prophet used to pray near the trunk of a date palm tree, which served as a support for him. But one day he was asked to sit down. When he settled for prayer at a distance from his usual place, the tree, separated from the Messenger of Allah, wept bitterly.

Another legend tells how one day an Arab came to the prophet and asked him: “How will I know that you are God’s prophet?” Muhammad replied: “I can order all the dates from that tree to fall to the ground.” And then he did so, after which he ordered the fallen dates to return back under the canopy of foliage. Muhammad repeatedly called for taking care of this beautiful tree.

The first mosque, built over the tomb of the prophet in Medina, was made of palm tree trunks and bricks. And to this day, the tomb of the prophet is decorated with decorative images of palm leaves. The houses in which Muhammad's wives lived were made from palm leaves and trunks. The Prophet ate any dates, but especially valued the “ajwah” variety.

It is not surprising that with such love of the founder of Islam for the date palm, the Arabs consider it their national tree. For desert dwellers, the palm tree is a nurse, providing protection from the sun, food, material for housing construction, fuel, feed for livestock and water (the powerful root system of palm trees is capable of pumping water from a depth of thirty meters). The importance of the date palm for Arabs is so great that in 1981, at the first inter-Arab conference in Baghdad, it was decided to celebrate September 15 every year as Date Palm Day.

The date palm and its fruits are widely used in both folk Arab and official medicine. Some recipes go back to the Prophet Muhammad and the great doctors of antiquity.

Sweets made from dates are very popular in the Arab world: dates stuffed with nuts, as well as dates covered with chocolate, coconut flakes and glazed with sugar, dates with dried apricots and chocolate. Dates and palm sap are used to make jams, honey, cookies, spirits (even sparkling wine!), juices and candy fillings. In terms of economic importance, the date palm is second only to the coconut palm in its family.

The ancient Greek scientist Strabo spoke about 36 beneficial features of the date palm known to people. However, the most popular of them - the ability to protect the traveler from the scorching rays of the sun - remains very relevant to this day.

Judean date palms grew from 2,000-year-old seeds

Date Palm ( Phoenix dactylifera

, Germinazione del Dattero) from Pomona Italiana (1817 - 1839) by Giorgio Gallesio (1772-1839)

Date palm seeds about two thousand years old from different parts of the Judean Desert remain viable to this day, reports Science Advances

. Researchers obtained male and female plants from them and found out which ones could be used to revive an ancient variety of Judaean date palms.

Date palms (P hoenix dactylifera)

It has been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years. Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD in his Natural History describes the fruits of this plant grown in Judea as very sweet (sweeter than Egyptian), juicy and shelf-stable. Due to their latter properties, Jewish dates could be transported for sale to various points of the Roman Empire.

By the 4th century AD, the Judean variety of date palms had disappeared because there was no one to grow it. However, material evidence of its existence - date bones - was found in the Masada fortress of King Herod (the southwestern coast of the Dead Sea) in the sixties of the 20th century, and then at excavations in other parts of the Judean Desert.

In 2006, four date palm seeds from Masada were tried to germinate, and one was viable. The plant that emerged from it was named Methuselah in honor of the biblical centenarian; now it is already in the open ground and blooms periodically. Date palms are dioecious plants (that is, heterosexual: male and female reproductive cells are each produced in their own “house”), and Methuselah produces pollen.

A few years later, the Israeli and French scientists who raised Methuselah collected 33 of the best preserved date seeds from various excavation sites in the Judean Desert - Masada, Qumran, Wadi Makuh and Wadi Qelt. Ancient date seeds were on average 30 percent longer and thicker than modern ones. All but one were kept for some time in a solution of gibberellic acid (this is a plant hormone that promotes seed germination and elongation of shoots), and then in a solution of organic fertilizers (to stimulate the development of the embryo). One bone, from Qumran, was left as a control.

Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith and Anna (all plants vary in age at the time of photography, from 54 to 110 months)

Sarah Sallon et al. / Science Advances, 2020

The DNA sequences of each date palm, including Methuselah from the previous study, were compared with those of modern varieties - and they can be roughly divided into Middle Eastern and African. It turned out that the most similarities with the living Middle Eastern date palms are found in Methuselah and Anna, and with the African date palms in Jonah and Uriel. The last two are from Qumran, and Methuselah is from Masada. There are only about 60 kilometers between these two points, and the differences in plant DNA are quite significant. This may mean that ancient Judean farmers artificially maintained the genetic diversity of their date palms and often crossed them with foreign varieties.

So far, not a single plant except Methuselah is blooming. However, it is expected that in the next two years Anna will begin to do this, and then it will be possible to fertilize her with pollen from Methuselah. This will probably make it possible, in some sense, to revive the ancient Jewish variety of date palms. But usually cultivated plants are propagated vegetatively and not by seeds. This produces clones that are not genetically different from the mother plant. That is, seeds may not be needed here. In addition, given the genetic heterogeneity of all seeds, it is not entirely clear what the standard of the Judean date palm was.

Before the germination of dates from the Judean Desert, the oldest viable dates were 1,300-year-old sacred lotus seeds from northeast China. And cell cultures made it possible to revive an even older plant - angustifolia gum (although it is likely that it is Siberian dawn). Fragments of the unripe fruit of this plant (cells were taken from them for cultivation) were found in permafrost in Kolyma and their age was determined to be 32,000 years.

Housing on the island Palm

Now let's talk about housing. What would you like: a villa, a hacienda, a cottage or an apartment?

The Hacienda has a long history within its walls. Sometimes it is two hundred years old. A cozy rural house with gardens, a swimming pool and everything you need will immerse you in complete peace and give you an unforgettable experience. Weekly rent will cost at least €300-400. The price may include cleaning, transfer to the airport, yacht rental and much more.

Apartments on the island Palma promises an equally comfortable stay, but directly in the resort town, where in addition to the pool and terrace, you can see the beach and bars and restaurants nearby. Cost – from €300.

Spacious villas will cost you €1000 per week. And for those who like relaxation with an agricultural touch, cottages are suitable: cozy small houses with a plot of land, a garden or a vegetable garden. You will have to pay €350 or more for them.

Separately, I would like to tell you about one unique hotel for adults. Have you ever wanted to spend a couple of unforgettable days in a museum? The Hacienda de Abajo hotel offers you to walk past the relics and feel like you are, in a sense, an exhibit. The history of the estate begins in the 16th century, but it opened only in 2012 after careful restoration. This is probably why the price tag is quite reasonable: from €92 per night. The hotel is located in the quiet historical center of the resort town of Tazacorte, surrounded by banana plantations and with magnificent views of the Atlantic Ocean.

How long does a palm tree grow: in nature and at home?

But the unusual tree is less familiar to flower growers and raises a lot of questions, including how many years does a palm tree grow and how can you get your own original tree?

Diseases and pests of homemade coconut

Coconuts at home most often suffer from various types of rot, mealybugs, as well as spider mites and scale insects. If growing techniques are followed, diseases and pests rarely affect coconuts. As a rule, the catalyst for their development is improper watering.

There are few serious diseases in coconut palms, these are:

Phytoplasma infection. This is an incurable disease. It can be diagnosed by the appearance of the crown - it turns yellow from bottom to top. It will not be possible to save the palm tree; it will have to be burned.
Pink and black rot (spore damage). The tree becomes weak, leaves and shoots begin to rot. If the process is neglected, the trunk also rots. Depending on the type of infection, putrefactive masses are dark brown, black or pink.

The plant is treated with fungicides: treatment once every 7 days until complete recovery.

If the coconut tree is maintained correctly, problems rarely occur, but any disturbances in humidity and temperature become catalysts for the development of diseases and the proliferation of pests.

Owners of homemade coconuts may also encounter the following problems:

The leaves are withering. The reason may be that the ambient temperature is too low.
The leaves begin to turn yellow and dry out. To prevent the coconut from turning yellow, it is important to follow the watering regime.
The tree is not growing. Palm tree growth may stop due to improper fertilization or too small a pot.
Curling of leaves. Occurs with excess or deficiency of moisture.

Growing a coconut tree at home is not an easy task, but it is incredibly exciting. Tropical beauty is a demanding and capricious plant. But if you strictly follow the rules of care, she will live in your apartment for a long time, and even in the coldest winters, next to her you will be as if on a warm sea coast.

Coconut palm

This member of the palm family is the only species of the coconut genus. The tree got its name from the shape of the fruits, which resemble a monkey's face - soso. The coconut palm is also called lithocarium.

In the natural environment

In optimal natural conditions, the lifespan of a tree can be 60–70 years. It is possible to get the first nuts from a 7-9 year old plant - by this period it has a fully formed, strong trunk that can bear heavy fruits.

A lithocarium growing under natural conditions can bear fruit on average for half a century. And in order to get coconuts, people have to climb the stairs to the very top, where they are located in groups of one and a half to two dozen.

The nuts take more than one month to ripen; this may take them from 8 to 10 months. On average, one such palm tree produces more than a hundred fruits per year.

Despite the fact that the fruits of the tree are called nuts, if we highlight the botanical characteristics, then this is a multi-layered drupe consisting of:

exocarpa - outer shell;
coir - fibrous layer;
endocarpa - a nut shell, characterized by hardness, located inside.

Coconut propagation: germination and preparation for planting

Coconut palms reproduce by seed (from seed) and shoots. The second method of coconut propagation is very rare, when an adult palm tree produces a daughter shoot. The main and almost only method of propagation at home is to grow a palm tree from an ordinary coconut (seed method).

You can buy coconut palm seeds (suitable fruit) in the store. The fruit must be unprocessed and its outer shell must not be damaged. Only a mature coconut full of liquid can germinate. Its presence can be easily determined by the characteristic gurgling sound, which is clearly audible if the fruit is shaken.

Only shelled nuts are suitable for planting. Stores sell already shelled coconuts. The top layers - exocarp and coir - are always removed before the product reaches the counter. This valuable raw material is used in industry.

Before planting the seed fruit in a permanent place, it needs to be germinated. There are 3 holes in the coconut shell for planting and germination - these are germination pores. They look like small depressions in the shell. Only one of them will be active, and the other two will be overgrown.

To germinate coconut, it is first soaked for 2-3 days in warm water. Then they are placed on a damp substrate (peat or sand) in a greenhouse or container, buried halfway and kept at a temperature of 24-25 °C. This temperature is closest to natural and optimal for germination. The nut must be placed horizontally, so that the sprout pores are on the side.

To speed up the germination process, it is recommended to keep the substrate moist. The nut itself can be periodically sprayed with warm, slightly salted water. Sea salt should be used. The container in which the nut is germinated can be wrapped in a plastic bag to create a greenhouse effect inside (the required temperature and humidity) and do not forget to open it daily for ventilation, otherwise the fruit may become moldy. In this way, they imitate the conditions natural for coconut germination in its habitat.

If everything is done correctly, after a certain time the nut will give roots, and green sprouts will appear from the seed. A fresh, mature nut takes 1 to 2 months to germinate. But in principle, this process can take six months. If after 5-6 months the sprouts have not appeared, it means that the fruit was unripe and there is no point in waiting any longer for it to sprout.

Date palm

The history and mythology of the Middle East contain many references to this tree, which was called nothing less than the “tree of life” and it was believed that its fruits were the food of the gods and the first people. The date palm was a symbol of fertility, prosperity, and prosperity, which is not surprising - growing in an extremely arid, desert area, they not only did not die, but also produced a bountiful harvest of nutritious, fleshy fruits.

In the natural environment

You can meet this exotic tree in various countries where the climate is hot and in nature they are real long-livers. The information about how many years a date palm can live is impressive - from one and a half to two hundred years!

At the same time, plants begin to bear fruit annually from 7–10 years of age, but you can expect a full harvest no earlier than 3–4 years after the first fruiting. The tree is capable of producing fruit until the last days of its existence, however, by 60–70 years it reaches a decent height - this complicates pollination and harvesting.

The growth of the date palm occurs intensively - up to half a meter per year, and a 15-17 year old tree turns out to be 6-7 meters tall. On average, they grow to 15–30 meters.

This is a plant with an almost straight trunk, “shaggy” due to the bases left in place of fallen leaves. At the top there are long - up to 4-5 meters - leaves that form an impressive rosette. Inflorescences appear from the axils, and there can be several thousand of them on one palm tree. When the fruits ripen, the inflorescences cannot support their weight and bend.

The palm berry, the date, is a very healthy product that is superior in nutritional quality not only to other fruits and vegetables, but also to cereals. But, thanks to the sweet, sometimes even cloying, taste, the fruits were classified as dessert fruits of excellent quality.

At home

Unfortunately, the Russian climate is not suitable for date palms, which love warmth and lack of abundant moisture. Perhaps you can find such exotic things on the Black Sea coast. Also, ornamental crops are planted in greenhouses and arboretums.

But, as it turned out, such a palm tree can be grown at home from a seed, having first germinated it:

You should select a seed from a berry that has not undergone heat treatment and soak it in plain water for 24 hours.
The washed bone can be placed for 2 days in a thermos filled with warm melt water, adding grains of humate.
After the event, the bone is placed in a reservoir with loose material - this can be vermicult, hydrogel, crushed and sterilized sphagnum moss.
Everything is packed in a plastic bag and sent closer to the radiator - this will speed up the process of germination of date palm kernels - a very heat-loving plant

Pecking of the sprout can be expected in 8–12 weeks, and before that it is necessary to maintain suitable substrate humidity and rid the film of accumulated condensation.

When sharp shoots appear, they need to be transplanted into the ground and palm substrate is most suitable for palm trees.

It is not difficult to grow a date palm at home, but care will require certain knowledge and effort from the grower:

it needs maximum lighting, but the light should be diffused;
In order for the crown to develop symmetrically, it is necessary to turn the pot with the palm tree 180 degrees a couple of times a month;
50% humidity is preferred;
It is important to provide the container with the tree with drainage.

In addition, we must not forget about regular watering, fertilizing and other mandatory activities.

What kind of care does it require?

Growing an exotic plant at home is not so easy. It needs proper care:

It is recommended to place the pot with the plant on the south side of the house.
In summer, the temperature should range from 16 to 20 degrees Celsius.
In summer, be sure to moisturize the crown.
From early spring until late autumn, a palm tree blooming at home needs abundant watering. Drying out the soil is unacceptable.
Green beauties love light very much, but they cannot be exposed to direct sunlight.
The plant is afraid of drafts.
The soil for growing should be light and flat.
Palm trees need regular feeding and fertilizer.

Reproduction

Propagating palm trees at home is quite difficult.

Certain species can only be propagated by seed.

There are also plants whose reproduction is allowed by dividing the rhizome or by daughter shoots.

Seed propagation requires careful attention. Seedlings should grow with lower heating, the temperature being about 35 degrees. How long do they grow? The first shoots can be observed after a couple of months. The lifespan of a plant grown in this way is quite long.

How long do palm trees live?

Palm trees grow in tropical regions and can reach great heights and live long lives. Belonging to the Palmae or Arecaceae plant family, there are over 2,500 species of palm trees known to exist. The typical palm has a tall, thin trunk with no side branches. Leaves or foliage grow only at the tops of trees. Because many palms have thin trunks and live near coastal areas, they can be killed if they are toppled by hurricanes and other adverse weather conditions.

What plants are palm trees?

Palmaceae (Arecaceae) are a family of plants with a woody stem (trunk) and long, broad, feathery leaves growing straight from the trunk. Palm trees bear fruit. The most famous fruit tree of this family is the coconut.

REFERENCE. Plants of this family have straight, columnar, non-branching trunks. And the leaves begin to grow almost at the very top of the head.

Trees are distributed throughout the Tropical and Subtropical zones. In Russia, varieties of these plants can be found on the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory. In areas of natural growth, trees are used in industry and grown in agriculture.

Some varieties of palm trees are cultivated as indoor decorative foliage plants. Their only difference from their “wild” counterparts is their short stature and rare fruiting.

Types of Palms

Common palm species include the coconut palm, which grows in tropical regions around the world and provides not only food, but also fiber, building materials and shade. It is believed that the first coconut tree originated in Malaysia and quickly spread throughout the globe. Date palms are native to Africa and surrounding areas and belong to the genus Phoenix. They produce a sweet fruit called date, which is used in confectionery and other recipes in many countries. The graceful areca palm has many branches and is often used as a houseplant. Oil palms produce oil, which is extracted from their fruit.

How to plant a coconut in a pot

After palm shoots from the coconut appear with the first 2-3 leaves, the sprouted fruit can be transplanted to a permanent place.

Before planting a coconut tree in the soil, you need to choose the “right” pot. It should be wide, twice the volume of the nut. There should be drainage holes in the bottom so that excess water can drain out. Accordingly, a pallet is also required. If there are no such holes, you will have to make them yourself.

Sprouting coconut requires patience and special conditions. If you don’t want to do this, you can always purchase a young plant of an ornamental variety at a garden center.

A drainage layer is placed at the bottom of the pot (shards or expanded clay are suitable), and a substrate is poured on top. The soil should be loose and well-drained and not acidic. The best option is special soil for indoor plants mixed with sand or light loam, humus, peat mixture, sand and charcoal in a ratio of 2:2:1:1:1. The soil for tropical plants should not be acidic.

Before planting sprouted coconut, the soil must be moistened. The sprouted nut is buried halfway into the soil, in the same position and to the same depth as during germination. That is, only the lower part is covered with the substrate, and the upper part remains on its surface. There is no need to separate the sprout from the nut. A young palm tree uses its stored nutrients during the first 3 years of growth.

As the tree grows and develops, its lower branches begin to die off. New ones are formed at the top of the main stem. This is how the trunk is formed over time. It is smooth, straight, and can slope slightly to the side. The trunk is surrounded by scars left by fallen leaves.

For a tropical tree, you should choose a suitable place in the house. The best option is a winter garden or greenhouse. But the plant can also feel comfortable on a windowsill, especially if it faces south. It is important that it receives enough light and moisture and does not suffer from cold.

coconut trees

Assuming the coconut tree is not deliberately cut down or blown up during severe weather, this tropical tree can live 80 to 90 years, according to Union County College in New Jersey. Its botanical name is Cocos nucifera and it can reach 100 feet at maturity. The fruit, or "nut", gives us the ingredient known as coconut, which is used in confectionery and other dishes around the world. The meat is nutritious and contains as much protein as 1/4 pound steak.

Having planted the next generation of palm trees, we will return to the freshly harvested harvest

Once the coconuts are on the ground, they are cracked and dried in the sun. The white, fatty endosperm is separated from the “shell.” The collected raw materials are dried in the sun or in ovens to protect the product from bacteria and fungi and copra is obtained, which contains about 70% oil. Coconut oil is extracted from copra by cold pressing or hot pressing. The resulting thick, fatty liquid is called thick coconut milk, which is used in desserts and sauces. It consists of 27% fat, 6% carbohydrates and 4% protein and includes small amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B3, C. Fresh coconut milk tastes like cow's milk and can be used to replace animal milk. The energy value of such milk is 230 kcal/100 g. Butter from cream settled after cold pressing is much more valuable than that obtained after hot pressing.

In cold pressing, the copra mass is re-immersed in water and squeezed out again to produce liquid coconut milk. It is used in Southeast Asian cooking as an additive to soups and other dishes. The cake remaining after oil production is fed to livestock.

Copra is used in the confectionery industry in the form of the familiar coconut flakes. The high fat content determines its use in soap making, cooking, in the production of margarine, cosmetics, medicinal ointments and suppositories. Let's understand the properties of coconut oil and see why manufacturers use it so actively.

Coconuts at a Vietnamese market

Date palm

Several species of date palms are cultivated in tropical countries, such as the African continent, and produce sweet, chewy fruits known as dates. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, date palms can live 100 years, although their productive life is limited to years when the tree is smaller and the fruit is easier to obtain for harvest. These palms can reach 75 feet in height, but are often cut down when they reach 45 feet or when their productivity declines.

Kariota

Kariota tender / palmtalk.org
This palm is distinguished by its unusual leaf shape. They are quite large, dissected and double-pinnate, and in appearance they somewhat resemble fish tails. In indoor conditions, karyote grows up to 2 meters in height, and in nature it is 10 times higher.

Place the palm tree in a location with bright and indirect lighting, but not in direct sunlight. In winter, it is better to provide additional lighting with fluorescent lamps. Once every couple of weeks the pot should be rotated, so the crown will develop evenly. Drafts and sudden changes in temperature are dangerous for caryotes in any season.

During the warm season, water once every few days, as soon as the soil on top of the pot dries out. In winter - a little less often, so that the soil has time to dry 4-5 centimeters deep. In the heat of summer and winter, when the air becomes dry, spray the palm tree at least once a day.

Oil palms

Several palm species are grown commercially for their oil. Indonesia is a major producer of palm oil, producing about 20 million metric tons of the commodity every year since 2007. The oil palms grown in Indonesia are the Tenera hybrid, which is a cross between the Dura and Pisifera oil palms. The fruits are harvested until they are about 25 years old or 25 feet tall. The best harvests appear when the tree is between 8 and 15 years old. Trees are felled when they reach 25 feet because the tools used to pick the fruit cannot reach higher. If left to grow, these trees can grow up to 100 feet tall and live significantly longer than 25 years.