Palmettos are the toughest palms

[Haddock]

Funny story with palmettos I had a couple of weeks ago. There was this palmetto tree near me that had some seedlings beside it. I dediced to go dig them out and plant them. This being my first time digging out seedlings and the fact they were growing in the almost pure clay soil of the piedmont the roots got damaged. They lost a good portion of the root system ( it’s ok I got a bunch only 2 got damaged) and I wasn’t super confident they’d survive. So I put them in a palm cactus potting soil mix ( much better then the clay they were growing in) and left them in side. I cut off a good potion on the fronds on them to increase survival rates and for humidity I would leave them near the shower when I showered. As expected the remainder of the frond shriveled up but only on one of the 2 palmettos, Surprisingly enough it was the least damaged one. The roots didn’t brown up though so I was still somewhat confident and now the palm is starting to show more green.

This and many other qualities of sabal palmetto make me believe it is the toughest palm in the world.

[PalmatierMeg]

Among trunking palms I believe it is right up there, esp. when you consider year round weather, not just winter. They revel in sun-blasted heat & sweltering humidity that cook most palm species, survive major hurricanes, droughts and arctic freezes. Their achilles' heels are climates that are deficient in the summer sun and heat they crave. I'm glad to see the current appreciation and respect for a palm that has been overlooked for decades.

[Haddock]

For those of you that would like to see,  when I first dug it up, most of the upper frond was brown already so I cut it off. Top image shows how it looks now. It’s grown so fast 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Haddock

[oasis371]

I love Sabals, but Sabal palmetto is not my favorite.  Maybe I got a bad one, but mine never grew.  I had much better success with Sabal louisianna, S. bermudana, and S. mexicana.

[Jtee]

I pulled up several Sabal palm seedlings or suckers or whatever you wanna call them from a parking lot in Pensacola. They looked rough for a couple months but have taken and now look healthy and are planted in my back yard now. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Jtee

[Haddock]

1 hour ago, oasis371 said:

I love Sabals, but Sabal palmetto is not my favorite.  Maybe I got a bad one, but mine never grew.  I had much better success with Sabal louisianna, S. bermudana, and S. mexicana.

Honestly I find that very very young palmettos have a much easier time drying up and rotting. A lot of the seeds I germinated ended up collapsing after I put them in the soil ( roots were small). Either put the seeds directly in soil and wait for it to come up on it’s own  or dig up seedlings that have already grown

[RyManUtah]

I agree. My youngin’s have seen -17F & 116F. Weren’t bothered by either. They’ve been crushed a few times by blowing debris and just laughed.