Dividing Containerized Serenoa repens

[Cosmo]

Yahooey, I can post. So between when I registered and today, I wore the search function pretty thin. I found this link which was very helpful. I confidently bulldozed what had become a misplaced needle out of the ground and ended up with a dozen new needles from it. (First pic and yes those are the bottoms of 1 gallon milk cartons repurposed for the needles.)

During the 40 days and 40 nights of rain we had here in North Texas I ventured into a nursery and found 2 containerized saw palmettos at a very sweet price. Pretty much they are doing their best to grow out of the pot. I can plant them the way they are but if it is possible I would like to salvage a few nice offsets from them during the planting process. DO I do it the same way as the needles in the link. Is there a decent chance for both palms to survive or am I just going to have dead palms all the way around. Your help will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Bigfish]

I'm glad you found that link helpful! As for Serenoa repens, their roots are more sensitive than Rhapidophyllum hystrix. I imagine if you were to do it very carefully and make nice, quick, sharp, clean cuts, then you could separate some of the larger offsets. Some recommend cauterizing any cut roots on Serenoa, since they have a tendency to "bleed out" when cut. I will say that I have ZERO experience separating Serenoa though!

Nice use of the milk jugs, BTW! My ex has a lot of cats and hence used a lot of kitty litter. I loved those big kitty litter buckets!

[Alicehunter2000]

I would not try to seperate them....also be carefull with the roots. They are notriously hard to transplant due to root sensitivity ....however once established ....pretty darn hard to kill. I chop them to the ground with a machete here....and they just come right back. They love pure sand.

Welcome to Palmtalk

[NorthFlpalmguy]

I would not try to seperate them....also be carefull with the roots. They are notriously hard to transplant due to root sensitivity ....however once established ....pretty darn hard to kill. I chop them to the ground with a machete here....and they just come right back. They love pure sand.

Welcome to Palmtalk

I agree. Container grown might be different though.

[Cosmo]

Well, I decided not to take a chance. Dug the holes and gently set them in. Used a utility knife to carefully cut the the container off instead of sliding the palm out of them. Here is a pic of them. If they like pure sand, they're gonna hate the black gumbo they are in. Farthest thing from sand you can get.

[Alicehunter2000]

Everything sounds good except the gumbo part.......it's not to late to pick up a bag or two of play sand and mound plant it....after all that effort it would be a shame to lose it from poor drainage.

[Cosmo]

These are planted in my pool landscape at the deep end of the pool which is the low grade side of the pool site. From a construction perspective, it only made sense to locate the 14' diving well on the downhill slope to minimize excavation work and $$. To bring the landscape bed up level with the deck, that end has a 3.5' - 4' retaining wall wrapping that end. About 3 weeks ago we just wrapped up our 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Some of reservoirs were 30'+ above normal level. The weather people estimated we had received over 37 trillion gallons of rain from Feb to beginning of June. Last week when I dug these in to make it easier to dig, I filled the holes with water in the morning so it would be soft in the evening to dig because it was so dry. Any other place in my yard, I'd agree.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Cosmo

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

I have split many different clumping species with great sucess (trithinax campestris, brahea decumbines, needle palms all 80-90% success rate) and have found that med fans and saw palmettos almost always die. The med fan pup usually dies, while both saw palmettos usually die. I highly suggest not trying to split them.

[Alicehunter2000]

Good info!

[Phoenikakias]

David, in case you have not already noticed it; the silver varity is more tolerant of poor drainage than the green one, not that both varieties would not equally benefit from a sandy soil though ...

[Moose]

The naturally occurring silver form is found along the coastal regions and barrier islands. They experience even sandier conditions and extreme drainage. Very little organic matter in those coastal areas.

The green form is more inland and some areas experience short term standing water from time to time.

An interesting observation - seed from the silver form does not always give you silver palms. Not sure if its a genetic throw back thing or a cultivation anomaly.

[Cosmo]

Been learning a whole lot here. The Serenoa is one of the hardy palms recommended for my area. There is a hobbyist that grows many palms in Dallas and does push zones but he is also in the middle of the concrete jungle so for the short duration cold snaps the city acts as a heat sink releasing stored heat. I'm still in the semi 'country' area so freezes during the winter are not softened. Actually the drainage around my pool deep end is decent. Under the gumbo is a layer of broken up caliche. Once the water hits that it pretty much flows right out through the landscape blocks.

As far as green versus silver from seed, I would suggest that the development of the silver variety is either sex linked or a recessive trait. Sex linked would probably result in a ratio pretty close to 50-50 but if a recessive trait the ration could be near 0 if a 'GG' green plant is fertilized with pollen from a silver form 'gg'. Likewise a Gg green pollinated from a gg silver would produce a 25-75 green to silver ration and the 25% green would all be carrying the recessive silver gene but appear green. Basic punnet square stuff.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Cosmo, I sent you a PM. I have a few things that would work for you.