Caring for Indoor Palm Plants - Your Tips Guide

Wondering how to go about caring for indoor palm plants? We offer our free guide, with lots of tips for caring for these tropical specimens. Learning how to care for indoor palms isn't just about keeping them in existence; it's about helping them thrive. Even if they'll be slow growing plants.

This guide helps you start on your journey, for having the best results for beautiful palms inside your home.

Or maybe you already have indoor plants, but you're a newbie to this lush world of indoor palms. Either way, the tips we have can help you assist your indoor palm to live its longest life.

First tip is to remember, every palm – and plant parent (you!) – is a little bit different. You'll find there's plenty of chances to create an environment that is warm, comforting, and inviting to your indoor trees. For that bit of tropical flair.

Continue scrolling on down for all your needs in caring for indoor palm plants. Or you can jump right to any of these topics we cover, by clicking them...

How to Grow Palm Trees Indoors With Proper Light

Let's look at sunlight you'll provide. Important when caring for indoor palm plants. Indoor palms need some amount of light to create food for themselves. That's their best way, with photosynthesis.

Out in nature, most types of palms love direct sunlight. But think about your indoor palm's native habitat. They're used to growing underneath taller outdoor palms & tropical plants. Where they're getting indirect light. Where bright light won't reach them. So for indoors, some palms will naturally grow in lower light.

How Much Light Do Indoor Palms Need?

Indoor palm plants need bright, filtered sunlight. Some a bit more than others. But never bright light. One important lighting tip: it's best To Buy Palms which have been grown for a year in low-light conditions of a nursery shade-house.

For instance, The Parlor Palm (Chamaedorea elegans), Lady Palms (Rhapis excelsa), Kentia Palm (Howea forsteriana), the Dypsis lutescens Areca Palm (same as Butterfly Palm) & Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii) all do best with the lower light level in the home.

Those palms handle anywhere from 25-50 Foot-Candle Lighting Levels. Like these low light real-world examples:

• Under lights at nighttime high school baseball, or after-dark recreational softball games.
• Warehouse lighting areas used for anticipated customer delivery.
• Or lighting for hospital nursing stations.

Near (not directly in front of) a south or west-facing window will likely give them enough light. With shear drapes to help filter the light.

Some Need a Little More Lighting

A European Fan Palm (Chamaerops humilis) will love a south-facing window. Outdoors it loves full sun. So indoors, in a good sunny window is best. Just note, this isn't the best palm species for growing as houseplant palms. But it's fabulous for outdoors!

If any palms aren't getting enough sunlight in your chosen spot, A Grow Light can help.

Your Soil Guide for Planting Palm Trees Indoors

Soil type is another essential when caring for indoor palm plants. Container palms need well-draining, aerated planting medium (substrate).

Potting Substrate for Indoor Palm Trees

One Other Palm Potting Tip is to spray the empty pot & planting medium with an application of Palm Fungicide. To help prevent root-rot problems.

Caring for Indoor Palm Plants by Fertilizing?

Fertilizers can be tempting. Especially when your palm has fresh, bright, green fronds you'd like to keep healthy.

Potted indoor palms grow very slowly. Adding no new fronds, or only a few. So they need very little nutrient help.

Moderation is key. Like mixing a small amount of Slow Release Fertilizer into the substrate preparation. One with the Best Ratio for Potted Palms. This will last your palm's needs for at least a full year.

To Use Fertilizer, Generally Here are Your Top Tips...

• For the best potted palm all-around fertilizer, ideally use a ratio of N3-P1-K2 (or as close as you can get! Remember N6-P2-K4 is the same ratio multiple).

1. One we don't recommend is Miracle Grow, as their marketing tries hiding the ingredients & proportions. Plus nitrogen is sourced from synthetics & its proportion is too high. 
2. Soluble salt content may also be too high - over the max of the equivalent of 960 mg/L of table salt. Which causes leaf and/or root damage.

• If for some reason, you really want to fertilize your indoor palm, try Liquid Fertilizer for indoor palm varieties. Follow instructions, except dilute it plenty & give it monthly at the most. 

1. The best time to dose it is during growing season.

Watering Tips, for Your Indoor Palm Tree Care

• Give enough water for a moist soil root zone. Make sure the Container Has Opening for Drainage, where you'll empty the excess water that's filled the saucer.

Watering Cautions When Caring for Indoor Palms

Does your tap water have excessive mineral content? Ours here in Tucson definitely does - having to regularly Remove Whitish Deposits from sink areas. If yours is similar, you can switch to watering with distilled water.

Or about once every six months, you can give twice your normal watering amount with distilled water. Be sure to check the saucer, discarding the excess water. This process removes salt build-up.

Handle This, However it Works for You:

• In winter, have a large container of indoor water for a plant to source.
• Use indoor stored Jugs of Distilled Water.

1. Have numerous potted palms? You can Make Your Own!

• Get tap water, but heat it to an acceptable level before watering.

Indoor Palm Trees - The Growing Guide for Maintenance

When Caring for Indoor Palms is Pruning Needed?

Indoor palms don't require much pruning. Only trim palm leaves that are diseased beyond repair. Or those totally dried out, dead brown fronds.

Over-pruning can stunt your palm's health, by eliminating food production in a low-light environment. It could give it a sad, bare look. Not quite the lush, inside the home tropical feel that we aim for!

Instead, consider another possibility: growing more by thinning. Some indoor palm plants, the clustering type, can be grown by division. By carefully separating stems, along with their root ball. Planting each it in its own pot.

Repotting to Multiply Clustering Indoor Palms

Be gentle when moving your plant. To not harm the meristem (growing point), also known as the palm heart. Which is life-maintenance for the palm, by supplying new growth palm fronds. It's prone to damage if jostled.

Essential to not plant the stem deeper than it had been planted before. Which will cover the Root Initiation Zone, preventing new root growth & likely damaging current roots. Any previously above-ground visible roots, though, can be covered.

Humidity & Temp Tips in Caring For Your Palm Indoors

At Home Watch Out for Indoor Palm Tree Bugs & Pests

Low humidity in winter months promotes options for these bothersome palm attacking bugs.

Watching for & Treatment for Insect Pests

Disease & Nutritional Pestilence Problems

Micronutrient problems arise when roots are distressed. From waterlogging, nonaerated potting substrate and/or planting too deeply.

Yet by following our guide's advice, you can put worries about nutrition away. Regular proper care & attention prevents problems.

Caring for Indoor Palm Plants Takeaways

Caring for indoor palm plants may sound complex. But once you’re regularly hands-on, you'll find satisfaction. Remember, the best part about gardening is learning and growing with your plants!

One More Tip: be patient. Indoor palms are slow growers, specifically during the winter. In their natural habitat, these palms have an entire tropical ecosystem at hand. Recreating it indoors is no small feat.

You might want to also check out easy palmy look-alikes, like the Sago Palm & the Ponytail Palm.

Isn’t it wonderful knowing you now have needed tools & knowledge for caring for indoor palm plants? You can breathe easy knowing your home can be filled with an enticing little escape to a tropical paradise!

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