Bismarkia Pulling Itself Out of the Ground

[JimR]

I have a Bismarkia with about one foot of trunk that has been planted out for over a year. It now seems to be pulling itself up out of the ground. Its roots are visible. This has gone on to such an extent that the palm seems rather fragile. The wind really pushes the whole tree around. It is in a spot which gets a good deal of wind. Any idea what is going on or how best to deal with it?

[Jim in Los Altos]

Pictures?

[Sandy Loam]

I am no expert and am the wrong person to ask, but I had a similar situation once (caused by a giant branch falling overhead which dislodged a CIDP from the ground). My solution was to pack a lot of soil around the base of the tree where some of the roots had been ripped up. This stopped the tree from flopping around in an unstable manner. I then proceeded to give it regular waterings. Now it is like an elevated planting, which is fine. As long as the roots remained unstable due to the overhead trauma, the CIDP was acting unhealthy because it would only push out "little leaf". However, I think I have solved the problem now, and maybe the same method will work for you too.

[JimR]

Sandy. I tried this about six weeks ago, but it seems to have now pushed itself up above even the new level of earth.

[JimR]

Jim. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

[Palmdude]

I've seen lots of Bizzies that are wobbly, mine included.

[JimR]

Some photos (I hope)

[JimR]

A knowledgeable suggestion I've just had is that it is busy pushing down its tap root still and, when that is done, it will pull itself back down.

[richnorm]

If you build a shallow raised bed around it and fill with grit it should root in just fine.

[Kostas]

Half of that bulbous like base you see would be buried if it had sprouted from seed there as they burry their growing point 25cm down upon germination. So it needs a nice, wide raised bed to get its base buried to the correct depth(slowly/incrementally).

It's busy growing thick roots but will not/cannot pull itself down, few plants can do that(cycads can but palms mostly cannot).