This is why you wanna bury Royals deep

[MattyB]

I've learned that if you plant your Royal palms in a bowl, 12" below grade, they will thank you later.  My largest Royal was planted in very deep depression 8 years ago and still today you can see that it has adventitious roots peeling the bark off looking for more soil.  That means that the entire circumference of the trunk, has 12" of roots in the dirt right now that would otherwise just be air pruned nubbins. 

[MattyB]

Here's an example from my neighbor's yard of a Royal that was planted normal.  Look at all those roots just wasted.

[PalmTreeDude]

Interesting! It was always kind of weird to see dead roots that basically turned into trunk above the soil. 

[kurt decker]

Alan Monroe, Barry Tomlinson and I did some work for the Montgomery Foundation back in 1997. We served as their first Palm Council and went through all their record-keeping and horticultural practices and gave them a series of recommendations going forward. Alan and Tim Broschat had done groundbreaking work in 1988 including planting depth. They had recommended planting palms level with the rootline. My experiences disagreed with this, south Florida is full of royals and coconuts that are jacked up out of the ground and look like they have had half the trunk chewed away with a weedeater. Instead, as Matty correctly identifies, the cause is that the palm was planted too high, and as adventurous roots form along the outside of the trunk, it erodes the trunk upwards. We wrote a nice report amending that reccomendation, and it came in handy some years later on an installation for the city of Hollywood. We installed 60 large royals for the city, and they thought we had planted them too deep, and refused to pay us unless we raised them up 10 inches. I talked to the gal in charge, she had Alan and Tim's paper, so I gave her the Montgomery report and she paid us.

[nachocarl]

Wow 12 inches below grade seems pretty deep, what about on a flat surface and not a slope as yours are located.  I just recently planted 3 ea. 5 gals and they are a little below grade, maybe 3" on a flat surface see pic 1.    Can you build a bowl around it by adding more soil over the years?  I guess the same could apply for queens; note the "air pruned nubbies"....pic 2. Also in pic 2 you can see a little royal that was planted as a one gal about a year and half ago at a level grade.  I have started to build a soil burm around the base but nowhere near 12".

[nachocarl]

Your neighbors looks pretty fat so I would assume otherwise health?  

 

[MattyB]

Carl, the deep planting would apply to flat ground as well.  And to clarify, you don't want to actually fill in the soil adjacent to the trunk at the time of planting.  A small palm with 12" of dirt up it's stem would surely rot.   You plant in a deep depression and as the palm fattens up over time it basically fills in the bowl with trunk girth and it meets the soil along the outside edge of the bowl at about the same time it's ready to go root monster on you.  I don't think mounding dirt above the soil line is the same thing. I'd recommend digging your palms up and lowering them if it's not too much trouble.  If you don't I'm sure they'll be fine as long as you're taking care of watering them, but if you wanna go pro then lower them.  And yes, Queen palms would be another palm that you should do this to.  I've planted 8 queens at 12" below grade and they've filled in their bowl with trunk and roots.  I'm also trying this with Copernicia baileyana and so far they're loving the bowl because it holds water.  Of course this bowl is going to fill up with water so you'd never want to plant a palm that wasn't a water lover like this.

Edited May 3, 2018 by MattyB

[MattyB]

Here's the Copernicia baileyana.  Hard to tell because the mulch and leaves have filled in the bowl, but it goes way down.  When it was younger I had to get in there with a long spoon (so I didn't cut my fingers on the spines) and scoop out the dirt and mulch to try and keep it from burying the palm stem prematurely.  It's pretty big now so I just let the bowl fill in naturally as the trunk expands.  I think it likes it.

Edited May 3, 2018 by MattyB

[nachocarl]

This is interesting (I like the diagrams ) but I probably have leave the older one where it is or start over, I don't think established Royals dig very well.  The other 3 have been in the ground just a little over a month and are cranking along so it is possible to reset them.  They are below grade, just not a foot, probably 3-4 inches and will get plenty of water.  What about kings, i know there were growers out there that would plant them high, but a big maxima may benefit from a MattyB Bowl Planting ^TM, a MBP if you will.

[Phoenikakias]

Don't know, whether it is relevant but the coincidence of concerned spp is so strong, that I'd rather not leave it unreported. Only on an outplanted Arecastrum and on a potted royal I have observed roots popping out of the ground at some distance from root initiation zone. Otherwise I wonder whether this practice could be beneficial in a climate with wet winter accompanied by low average temps during that season. 

[GottmitAlex]

I planted these a year ago 1/2 to 3/4" deep talking about the husk/nut. Their stems have been expanding since, and they're practically on soil level now.

But I won't plan to move any of these. In my case. Not because they're small. But because their super tropical. Almost two years in. Can't afford the risk. I'm nothing near to a pro anyway. But I do understand the concept. 

[BillDaCat8]

Thank you for the tip @MattyB

Perfect timing too. I've got a Royal as well as a Cali Fan that are about to go into the ground. I'm thinking that Cali fan palm could benefit from a deeper bowl as well eh? 

 

[Zeeth]

Nice! Excellent visuals.

[Pando]

[Jim in Los Altos]

I guess that excellent planting arrangement works really well when planting anything 5 gallon or more. I planted my Roystonea borinquena directly in the ground out of one gallon containers so planting deep would have buried the whole plants. They're growing well after a few years so I may "pile" soil around their bases as they fatten up. 

[Phoenikakias]

I am not quite sure yet, what's wrong with aerial production of roots. Is it only easthetic the issue or are those roots supposed not to be functional. I doubt that latter case is correct at least in my climate. Washies and Arecastrum and Brahea produce usually such aerial roots, which eventually find their way inside the soil, and they look to me perfectly fleshy and functional.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Phoenikakias

[nachocarl]

10 hours ago, Pando said:

[Phoenikakias]

On 4/5/2018, 12:34:02, Phoenikakias said:

Don't know, whether it is relevant but the coincidence of concerned spp is so strong, that I'd rather not leave it unreported. Only on an outplanted Arecastrum and on a potted royal I have observed roots popping out of the ground at some distance from root initiation zone. Otherwise I wonder whether this practice could be beneficial in a climate with wet winter accompanied by low average temps during that season. 

Pictures for the records. First the Arecastrum and then the royal.

[Tracy]

On 5/3/2018, 12:47:09, MattyB said:

When it was younger I had to get in there with a long spoon (so I didn't cut my fingers on the spines) and scoop out the dirt and mulch to try and keep it from burying the palm stem prematurely.

Someone recommended this same technique when planting my Copernicia textilis, and I did it.  I'm still at that point of scooping out excess dirt and mulch which wants to run off down into the trough around the plant.  As you point out it works well with palms which appreciate plenty of water, but you have to stay on top of the dirt which wants to backfill around the young trunk prematurely.  Great advice and thread Matt, you have to do something when we get in these flat spells!!!

[Missi]

On 5/2/2018, 9:16:53, MattyB said:

Here's an example from my neighbor's yard of a Royal that was planted normal.  Look at all those roots just wasted.

This is pretty much every royal in SW FL. They do fine in the hurricanes though.