I realize that this isn't a good time of year to transplant palms, and I'll probably wait until the spring, but I am curious about this Foxtail Palm that I just bought at a local nursery. There are four in the pot. I was wondering whether I should plant them together for a mass planting or separate them before planting. Thanks for the help, Geoff!
It'll be a matter of personal preference really. Haven't seen any grown to maturity at that spacing, I doubt they'd all survive. To be a "mass" of mature plants you'd probably have to have them about half a metre apart now, at least. They do form a thick trunk. My personal preference would be to spread them at least 3 to 4 metres apart. They'd grow quicker then as well.
In your climate I think this would be an ok time of year to plant... no experience with Foxtails planted in a clump like that. Might be interesting... might be a problem. Depends how much you want all of them to live. Some palms, even this small, die if you rip their roots apart, and some tolerate it very well. I don't know which one is true for Wodyetias.. If that were mine pot-o-palms, I would plant them out just like that, but mostly just to see what happens.
Thanks so much Tropicbreeze and Palmbob. I appreciate the help.
I don't know why nurseries do this. I recently purchased some Parlor Palms, and there must have been over a hundred in one pot. I separated them into two pots, but I still have about 50 in each pot! I guess maybe they can live like that since they have small trunks.
I would really hate to separate the Foxtails and have some of them be stressed and die. I went searching for anyone else who might have done a mass planting. This was the closest that I found: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/185799/
I was looking at this picture that PalmBob posted in Hawaii. Why are their mounds piled up at the bases of the palms? Is that to make the water run off instead of soaking in? I always thought mounds were a bad thing. I have wells around most of my plants.
Nurseries do this for the obvious reason... it's cheap and easy. One pot, saves them money. Also, palms are usually germinated in large community pots, so this just requires less work and less soil and less pots.. makes sense all around.... until these palms get to someone who really cares about them.
If you have lived in Hawaii for any length of time, you would learn that it rains there a lot... and some times a REAL lot... and usually that ends up flooding large lawns like that. Palms that are not used to growing in flood plains will often rot at the roots then.... so in flat areas like this, palms are grown routinely on mounds to keep them from rotting. Too little water can be a rare seasonal problem, but in many areas of Hawaii, too much water it more common. Fortunately for many areas of Hawaii, their soil is extremely well draining (if they even have soil... sometimes it's pure lava rock and you have truck in or create soil). In one area an entire palm garden is ground on a humongous mound of crushed lava rock about 4' tall (see the article on Pauleen Sullivan). Makes to easy moving when you plant palms in that much lava rock... roots just come right out with hardly any damage and even large palms can be replanted easily.
Ah, I see. Ugg. Make the consumer separate them, and when they die, they'll buy more. Very clever.
We're posting at the same time. Thanks for both explanations:-)
By the way, it may have been cheap for them to do it this way and cost effective for them, but it wasn't cheap for me. I paid $160 for the four palms in one pot. I'm probably an idiot for paying so much.
wow, that does seem pricey... but they look like nice palms.
That does seem an excessive price. From being an endangered plant not so long ago to now after a mass propagation program the price of the palm dropped dramatically. I think that if wholesale nurseries have seed they suspect might not be all that fresh they plant several to a pot so that at least one will come through.
Wodyetias come from a strong monsoonal climate, like here. Wet season (summer) is very wet and the dry season (winter) is very dry. A lot of tropical plants can take waterlogging in the wet season but rot with too much water in the dry season.
The best way to separate those plants would be to carefully wash away all the soil and then carefully separate the roots. Of course, at the price you paid I'd be worried about damaging them. Bit of a dilemma.
Thanks so much. I'll will do as you suggest when I go to separate them, and hopefully, they will all survive. Thanks for the growing tips. I appreciate the help:-)
