Palm Plant Care: How to Grow Indoor Palm Trees as Houseplants

Indoor palm plants are a lovely way to bring the tropics into any home décor. Most indoor palm species and tiny potted plants are simple to maintain. Plenty of bright, indirect light and moist soil are their two essential care requirements. Palm trees may flourish indoors for many years if you provide these conditions.

The areca palm, majesty (majestic) palm, cat palm tree, and the colder hardy palms parlor and kentia are some of the most popular indoor palms.

How to care for indoor palm trees: Water your palm tree when the upper layer of soil dries, keep humidity high, and grow it in a pot with well-draining rich soil. In bright, indirect sunlight with temperatures between 65°F and 85°F (18°C and 29°C), palms thrive indoors. Monthly fertilization is required for your indoor palm tree.

Palms are a type of palm tree that may be found all over the world, especially in the tropics and subtropics. Palm trees come in over 2,600 different varieties, many of which may be kept indoors in pots. Some species, such as the parlor palm and magnificent palm, are among the most popular houseplants in the world because they are simple to look after.

The long, sometimes arching leaves known as fronds are used to identify palms. Eye-catching foliage brightens up a room, office, or entryway with feathered leaves. The bamboo palm, for example, has a bushy appearance with slender stems. Other exotic palms, such as the ponytail palm, feature long slender leaves and massive woody stalks.

A thorough guide to maintaining indoor tropical palm trees may be found in this article. The solutions to several typical concerns when growing palm trees indoors are provided at the conclusion of the article.

Types of Indoor Palm Plants

Here are some of the best indoor palm plant options to choose from:

Majesty palm tree—A large palm that begins as a medium-sized houseplant and develops into a giant. Thankfully, this is a palm plant that takes time to grow. To help Majesty Palms thrive, give them enough moisture and heat. In addition to bright locations throughout your room, these tropical palms thrive. Learn how to grow Majesty Palms indoors.

Parlor palm—When it comes to selecting a tropical plant for home environments, the top palm tree is hard to beat. Their name stems from their popularity in Victorian parlors. As a result, palm houseplants are also excellent in low-light environments. This palm ranks near the top of the easiest palms to cultivate at home.

Areca palm—This tropical house palm has feathery fronds and bamboo-like stems, and it is also known as the butterfly palm. Keep the palm in direct sunlight at all times. It’s worth noting that areca palms tolerate some shade.

Bamboo palm—Bamboo palms are distinguished by their bushy, feathery light-green leaves. Indoor pots are also easy to maintain since they can tolerate low humidity and low light.

Kentia palm—The kentia plant is a frequent home pick because to its long arching stems and huge fronds. These indoor potted palms have a tropical appearance that may bring the tropics indoors. They’re cold hardy to 23°F (-5°C), so stick them in bright indirect light and don’t sweat if the temperature drops. Because they can tolerate low light and shade, they are popular as houseplants.

Brown or Yellow Tips on Indoor Palm Tree Leaves

Brown tips on leaves are a common occurrence with indoor palm plants. Over-feeding or a lack of water is a common cause of brown or yellow tips. Check the soil for dryness or feed less if you see brown or yellow tips on palm leaves. Trimming off the ends is the only way to get rid of brown or yellow tips, but it may also kill the frond.

How to Care for Palm Plants Indoors

Palm trees have certain essential care needs in order to thrive, even if they are typically non-fussy houseplants. Of course, certain species may be more difficult to maintain than others, such as the parlor palm and kentia palm.

Ideal Location for Indoor Palms

Ideally, your palm plant pot should be placed in full sunlight, but not in the direct heat. The parlor and butterfly palms, for example, are more likely to tolerate shady areas in a room or workplace. In the shade, the pygmy date palm and fishtail palm will droop because they need more light.

In rooms with little or no natural light, most palm species won’t grow well. Pearlyns, on the other hand, may not be the best shower plants if you have a windowless bathroom since bathrooms are often humid rooms.

Best Potting Soil for Indoor Palm Plants

Palm plants need well-draining, bright soil of all kinds: Chinese fan palms, cat palms, and ponytail palms. A combination of soil, peat moss, and perlite or shredded bark is the ideal potting mix for palms. Peat moss, for example, is an organic-rich material that retains water as well as providing nutrients.

Perlite or bark pieces help to aerate the soil, allowing water to drain quickly. If you want your indoor palms to thrive, it’s important to check the moisture content of the potting mix. Palm plant potting soil must be kept moist, not soggy, overly wet, or waterlogged at all times. The drainage holes in the pot should be filled quickly when watering your plants.

Watering Indoor Palm Plants

All types of palms thrive indoors when they have access to enough water. Watering when the top 1″ or 2″ (2.5–5 cm) of soil has dried out is the best tip to care for a thriving indoor palm. Wait until all the extra water has drained out of the pot before pouring enough water in to fill it. The roots are adequately hydrated with this watering technique. Never leave your palm in water. The plant’s roots will be destroyed if there is too much moisture.

Remember, however, that there should always be moisture in the palm potting soil. As a result, do not allow the land to get too dry. The leaves will start to develop brown tips, which you may see. Wiping the soil every three to four months is one care tip for watering tropical indoor palm plants. Salts in tap water and fertilizer may harm your palm’s health in the long run. Here’s how to flush excess salts from your palm’s potting soil:

Gently run a lot of tepid water through the soil of your potted palm in the bath.
Continue to flush the soil for two or three minutes.
Let all water to escape from the land.
Return your palm to its original position

Indoor Temperature Requirements for Palms

Palm trees thrive indoors, despite the fact that they love heat. Several tropical plants, such as parlor palms, majesty palms, and ponytail palms, can be grown in room temperatures of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Several palm trees, such as the kentia palm, are resistant to a little frost, while others are sensitive to it.

Palm trees grow outdoors in hot countries in their native environment. Keep room temperatures between 65°F and 75°F (16°C – 24°C) for most types of palms to thrive indoors. Palm trees, on the other hand, are excellent houseplants that can thrive in a variety of environments. Choose a parlor palm, which grows in most conditions, if your room lacks heat and is shaded.

Humidity for Indoor Palms

It’s difficult to humidity wise for house palm plants. Indoor air is typically drier than outdoor air. In addition, humidity issues can result from a lack of air flow. Room humidity should be between 40 and 60%, according to the guidelines. You may have to spray the leaves daily, use a humidifying tray, or install a room humidifier to keep palms healthy.

When the heating or air conditioning is turned on, the difficulties of palm plant care with humidity arise. The air in a home gets dried out when it is heated or cooled. In the summer and winter, make certain to provide your indoor palm trees enough humidity. To keep your palm trees thriving indoors, create a pebble humidity tray. The following is how to build a humidity tray:

Choose a small tray or plate that is wider in diameter than your pot.
Place a layer of pebbles about 1” (2.5 cm) deep in the tray or plate.
Fill with water until it’s almost at the top of the pebbles.
Make sure the water doesn’t come into touch with your palm plant pot while placing it on the pebbles.

The palm leaves are kept moist by the water from the humidifier tray.

Fertilizer Need for House Plant Palms

Getting the fertilizer right is one of the trickiest aspects of caring for indoor palm plants. A mineral salt buildup can occur in the soil of palms growing in pots. Excess minerals may cause brown tips or burns to the plant’s roots over time. Dry air, less heat, and cramped roots also make tropical palms grow slower indoors. As a result, their nutritional needs are lower than those of outdoor palm trees.

Select a potassium and magnesium-rich palm plant fertilizer. Since they don’t include chemicals, try to select an organic houseplant or palm fertilizer. Feed plants only in the spring and summer, and don’t feed them in the winter.

To care for your palm and ensure it gets appropriate nutrients, here are some essential guidelines:

For palm plants, use a long-release fertilizer.
Palm trees should be fertilized once to twice a year.
Instead of using water-soluble fertilizer, you may use granules, pellets, or spikes.
Remember that overfertilizing is much more harmful than starving palm trees.

Pruning Potted Palms

Regular pruning may assist keep your plant looking fresh since old palm fronds turn yellow and die off as they age. The primary stem of fronds that have turned completely yellow or brown with age may be cut. There is no need to prune the whole frond if the plant just has brown tips.

Should brown leaf tips on palm leaves be pruned? Brown palm tips should not be pruned, according to some websites. The lovely, majestic palm may, however, become unattractive if there are a lot of brown spots. As a result, to improve the palm’s look, you could clip off the brown edges.

Repotting Palms at Home

Palm trees seldom need repotting since they are slow-growing indoor houseplants. Palm trees have a shallow root system, so they don’t like being disturbed. As a result, if they are totally rootbound, simply move them to a new pot. Keeping small pots of these palm species, such as majesty palms, kentia palms, areca palms, and parlor palms, prevents them from developing into huge trees.

As a result, only every two or three years should the pot be repotted. Remember that over-potting, or planting in a pot that is too big, may cause soil moisture issues when selecting the proper sort of palm pot.

Remove the root ball from the present pot carefully when repotting a palm. Try not to mess with the roots in any way. You may use a new, slightly bigger pot to house the plant. Since this might stress the roots excessively and cause the palm to wilt or perish in the new pot, there is no need to shake off excess soil.

Propagating Tropical Palm Plants

Cuttings or root division are notorious for being difficult to propagate palms. Growing a palm from seeds is the best method to propagate it. You should obtain seeds online or from your local garden center because indoor palm plants seldom, if ever, bloom. New seeds are the finest kind of palm seed for propagation. From seed, how to grow palms:

Put a couple of palm seeds in a little pot with just enough soil to cover them.
Cover the pot with plastic to trap in moisture and place it in a warm, humidified environment.
Before they sprout, palm seeds have a two-month window.
After the palms have sprouted, move the pots to a bright, humid, warm environment of at least 75°F (23°C).
Move the palm to a bigger container when it produces two or three leaves.

Are Indoor Palms Toxic?

Because they are non-toxic to dogs, cats, bunnies, and other pets, palm trees are safe to have around the home.

Indoor Palm Care: Disease and Pests

Indoor palms such as cat palms, parlor palms, and majesty palms are tough enough to grow in the home. They are therefore resistant to pests and diseases, which makes them ideal for gardens. Scale, spider mites, and mealybugs are the most common palm pests that can infest indoors. Here are some ways to keep your hands bug-free:

Spider mites—Tiny speckles on palm fronds are a good way to detect these tiny insects. Spider mites are typically eliminated by maintaining high humidity levels.

Mealybugs—On the palms, these pestilent pests look like little white flakes. To eliminate mealybugs from your palm, use an organic neem oil wash.

Palm diseases—The majority of palm plant fungus and bacterial diseases are caused by too much moisture in the soil. Palm disease symptoms include withering or drooping fronds. You may not be able to save a sick plant in many circumstances. However, before watering, you may give the soil a chance to dry.

Common Indoor Palm Plant Problems: Brown Tips

When caring for palms indoors, the most common problem is unsightly brown tips that appear on the leaves. The following three primary factors contribute to brown palm tips:

The soil becomes too dry when watering is insufficient.
Mineral salts build up when you feed too much or use too much fertilizer.
The scorching of leaves caused by direct sunlight.

There is no way to save palm leaf tips once they have browned. As a result, keep your palm looking healthy by trimming off the brown tips. Make sure to water your palm thoroughly and only feed it occasionally in the future.