Transplanting beach sabals

[Sias]

These 2 trees are growing shockingly fast for sabals here in folly beach. But obviously I think they can’t keep growing here or there will be nothing left of our boardwalk soon. Question is, can I dig them up, and then replant them? They are growing ghe dunes under the boardwalk. 

[Fusca]

7 minutes ago, Sias said:

These 2 trees are growing shockingly fast for sabals here in folly beach. But obviously I think they can’t keep growing here or there will be nothing left of our boardwalk soon. Question is, can I dig them up, and then replant them? They are growing ghe dunes under the boardwalk. 

You can but only if you can dig around them enough to avoid damage to the underground growing point and roots.  Strap-leaf seedlings are easier to transplant but older juvenile Sabal palms are more difficult.

If you hurry you can correct the obvious autocorrect in the title!  😆

[Sias]

1 minute ago, Fusca said:

You can but only if you can dig around them enough to avoid damage to the underground growing point and roots.  Strap-leaf seedlings are easier to transplant but older juvenile Sabal palms are more difficult.

If you hurry you can correct the obvious autocorrect in the title!  😆

Haha hilarious transplanting sandals! Appreciate the auto correct correction 😎

[Ben G.]

43 minutes ago, Sias said:

These 2 trees are growing shockingly fast for sabals here in folly beach. But obviously I think they can’t keep growing here or there will be nothing left of our boardwalk soon. Question is, can I dig them up, and then replant them? They are growing ghe dunes under the boardwalk. 

It will be difficult, and your success rate may be low. On the other hand, you have little to lose. As you said, they can't keep growing where they are. Dunes are likely the easiest environment to dig them from too. Give it a shot and roll the dice. Love or die, they won't get to stay where they are forever.

[Fusca]

I transplanted this slow growing Sabal uresana back in March.  It didn't like sitting in water so I reluctantly dug it out.  After replanting it sat doing nothing for 6 months before it finally started growing again.  

Here it is today - finally pushing a new spear.

[Sias]

5 hours ago, Fusca said:

I transplanted this slow growing Sabal uresana back in March.  It didn't like sitting in water so I reluctantly dug it out.  After replanting it sat doing nothing for 6 months before it finally started growing again.  

Here it is today - finally pushing a new spear.

That’s so cool. I guess I’m just going to have to figure out where the roots are. I’m nervous to kill them. So just dig big ? 🤔

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, Sias said:

That’s so cool. I guess I’m just going to have to figure out where the roots are. I’m nervous to kill them. So just dig big ? 🤔

Yeah, you can see with my Sabal uresana seedling it's about a 2-gal sized palm with the roots.  I dug about a 10-gal sized hole not knowing how deep the roots were.  Your palms look bigger than mine - maybe 5 or 7-gal?  Shouldn't be a big effort to dig in sand though.  I'd start out at least a foot away from the base in all directions so that you can go deep without slicing through roots.  Good luck!  👍

[SeanK]

I would wait until March 15th. Around March 1st, dig a circle about 12" radius from the base. Come back in two weeks and remove. In the meantime, get a bottle of rooting hormone powder.

[Allen]

Low success rate as any roots cut will die back and have to regrow.  For highest success when palm is growing and temps approach 80F plus dig a third around palm cutting roots and wait a couple months for these roots to start regrowing then either attempt transplant or better yet do another 1/3 cut and wait

[JLM]

I would also look into local laws and sand dune protections. They may not be able to be touched.

 

If after that research you think it should be fine, sabals are hard to transplant. Good luck!