Morning in The Tropical Paradise

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Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, sniffs around The Tropical Paradise.

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

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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...
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Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

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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 ...
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How to determine the gender of your cycad (sago palm)

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Unlike most plants, cycads, like sago palms, are dioecious. That is, the plants are either male or female. And yes, you can tell the gender of your sago palm, but only when it's coning. Cycads are strange plants. Even though they look like small palm trees, or large ferns, they're actually most closely related to pine trees. You know, the trees with the cones. And when your cycad gets old enough to begin its reproductive cycle (it usually has to be at least 25 years old), it will produce cones. If you have a male cycad, when it cones, it will look like, well, a cone. That is, it will be a familiar shape, you know, like pine trees have. If yours is a female, like the one at the top of this post, the cone will be less "coned shaped", but casual cycad collectors like me still call it a cone. The reproductive process is a familiar one. The female must be in a receptive state to accept the pollen from the male, the female produces the seeds, which the male makes v...
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