Preparing a planting hole for a sago palm

-
Sago palms (cycas revoluta) do well here in the Phoenix area, but there is a trick to planting them. They love the heat, do best with a little bit of shade, but they hate the heavy clay native soil. So the first step is to dig a hole and get rid of the native soil. I've removed it and filled some buckets which I use to fill in elsewhere that I need that type of soil, which, when it dries, is as hard as concrete.

After the hole is dug, it is refilled with a mixture of potting soil and volcanic pumice. I get volcanic pumice here in the Phoenix area at Baker Nursery. Don't expect to find it at Home Depot or Lowe's. It allows free draining of water so that the roots don't rot, which will kill a sago palm.

So, fill the hole with the mixture, and be generous. You eventually want the area to mound up a bit. Whatever you do, don't plant a sago where water will stand. They like water, but they don't like standing with their "feet wet". In the photo of the planting hole you can see I left a little bit of flower foliage to help me keep track of where the water will be. You can't just plant a sago like a cactus, and fail to give it water. It will live, but it will look terrible. I've seen struggling ones around town. Make sure that there is a good water source, and free-draining soil. Did I mention the importance of free-draining soil?

Remove the native soil and fill with potting soil and volcanic pumice
I tossed in a bit of Osmocote slow-release plant food as I am hoping to see some growth as early as this spring. If not, I can wait another year. This is the right time of the year (February, March, April) to plant a sago as it's not too cold and the heat hasn't come on yet. Here in the Phoenix area, the heat comes on fast! As the soil warms up, it will encourage root growth. This sago must be established before that, and it will.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do
Read more

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I
Read more