Has anybody tried transplanting mule palms? If so how root sensitive are they?

Thank you!

don

I planted a mule from a 15g in June 2019 and then transplanted it in February 2021. It didn't seem to care. I have moved several Butia with no issues, except for one that accidentally got no water in a hot June drought. That one died. I haven't tried moving any Syagrus, but I haven't heard of them being particularly root sensitive. They grow like weeds here (and seed like weeds too) so I'd guess they are ok to move.

As a palm grows larger so do the roots. At some point you may lose a lot of roots as they reach far away from the tree trunk. Generally less time in the ground is better. If its been in the ground a long time, I would root prune it in 4 stages over 4-5 months. You do this by digging a circumference around the tree at the desired rootball size. But you do this 90 degrees at a time then let sit and let those roots grow in close to the trunk, then next 90 degrees until done. IN this way you will transplant a palm with many more functional roots ready to expand. If you just have to rip it out, it might survive with a good size rootball, I haven dug mules before and each species/hybrid sp can be different in survivability of transplant. I would do it in late winter if the area freezes each year and I'd do it in mid fall if not. You dont want the plant to desperately need lots of new roots due to a full sun and dry/hot season climate which seems to be more common lately here in florida. And yes you will need to chop off some older green leaves as the roots needed to feed them will be reduced dramatically in a transplant.