How to Grow Indoor Palm Trees
Palm trees grown indoors make a lovely addition to a living room or foyer. Surprisingly they are not that difficult to grow when you provide basic requirements. Start out right by purchasing a healthy palm tree and placing it in the best location for optimum growth. Indirect sunlight and a slightly humid environment are ideal conditions for growing palms indoors. Learn the simple requirements of how to grow indoor palm trees.
Select a healthy palm tree from a reputable nursery. Avoid purchasing palms with brown or yellow leaves, as this can be an indication of over watering or too much sun. Spots or speckles on leaves may be a sign of disease. Turn the leaves over looking for bugs. Tall and gangly looking palm trees could already be root bound. The ideal palm is medium sized, with a straight stem and full green fronds.
Choosing the right place in your house with the correct type of lighting is imperative. Palm trees require a great deal of bright light, but not direct sunlight. Do not put them in a sunny window, but instead place them off to the side where they will receive the benefits of indirect lighting.
Caring for palm trees indoors also means selecting a location that is warm, but not hot and not in front of heating vent or ducts. Dryer climates may necessitate the use of an indoor humidifier.
Repot your new palm in a larger pot if it needs to be transplanted. Increase the pot size by no more than one to two inches as the palm grows. The number one requirement for palms is loose well-draining soil with pot drainage holes. Palms cannot tolerate standing water on their roots. Place a plant saucer under the pot and empty excess water from the saucer after each watering. Only water palms when the soil surface is visibly dry.
Add humidity to your home with a humidifier if possible. A small inexpensive humidifier can improve the overall health of palms that love high humidity. As an alternative spray palm leaves daily with water.
- Rinse salt from the plant pot about every four months. Flush the pot soil outdoors using distilled water to remove salt build up from tap water.