palmetto palm seedling questions

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by kromie101, Aug 7, 2010.

  1. kromie101

    kromie101 Member

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    Location:
    Tabor city,NC USA
    i just found about 10 little blades coming up out of our mulch. i thought they were a blade of grass but they look and feel tough like a palm leaf. about a year or so ago i was cutting of the seed branchs from the palm trees. just for giggles i knocked off as many seeds as i could thinking they would plant them selves in the mulch.

    i guess they did,and they are about 1 to 2 inches. we just started seeing them and thought it was really cool. they came off of a palmetto palm tree.i think that is the name. we live just out side of myrtle beach about 20 min.

    my question is,i want them to grow but not where they are. can i move them to a planting pot or to another spot in the yard? i moved the mulch away on one, and found the seed with a small root coming out. any advice? thanks so much,eric
     
  2. kromie101

    kromie101 Member

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    i finally see my post. i'm not sure if i'm looking at it right but did my question get answered? sorry,i'm a newbee.
     
  3. thanrose

    thanrose Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    Jacksonville, FL USA USDA Zone 9
    Nope, no one has answered it yet.

    Okay, let me try.

    Yes, you'll have no problem transplanting the little sprouts. You may run out of patience with watching them grow to a size that is useful in a landscape, though.

    Give them well drained, preferably deeper pots rather than shallow at this time. Palm roots are pretty much superficial, fibrous, and shallow. It's just that you want the eventual root mat to have some depth to it.

    If you are really wanting to transplant them into your yard, you might investigate other methods such as asking a neighbor with an overgrown lot if you may dig one out instead. Have you ever seen the big trailer beds go by with palms in repose? The tops are shorn of mature leaves, the young leaves are tied up in a spike with cotton or sisal twine (specifically so it will rot off in a year or so), and the roots are in a thick pad maybe a foot deep by four feet square (often quite a bit less!). They grow them in the ground either at a nursery or in semi-wild forest owned or leased by the nursery, then carve them out of the dense mat of roots in the ground and throw them on the flatbed for hours or days with roots exposed. Sounds harsh, and it really is. They are just so common that the nursery doesn't care all that much if they have to replace 10% or so.

    These seedlings will continue to look like grass, only bigger, for the next ten years, give or take.
     
  4. jwayne

    jwayne Member

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    corinth, mississippi
    heres the story...me and my family took a trip to panama city, florida in may of 2009. sabal palmetto ( cabbage palms ) were planted alot there and so i took 5 seeds from one home with me. So at home i threw the seeds in small clay pots outside on the deck and not long after one sprouted. i didnt know at the time that palm seeds may take months and even over a year to sprout so i threw the rest of the seeds in the yard thinking they are surely dead. winter came and went and the other day i was sitting on the front porch and noticed 2 green stiff spears sticking out of the black mulch in the flower bed. It was the cabbage palm seeds i had threw away the year before. I was amazed because the seeds had survived a USDA hardiness zone 7 ( and sometimes 7b ) winter. And i did not plant them i threw them down in the flower bed. so now i have them in small pots on the deck and am going to bring them in this winter. So your seedlings in north carolina should do fine!
     
  5. kromie101

    kromie101 Member

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    that sounds good.well right now i took 4 of them and stuffed them in a plastic solo cup. i put 1 by the window sill and the others i left sit at the foot of the tree. looks like they are still good for right now. i still keep finding others sprouting up everywhere.maybe i should let them be or maybe replant some more. i guess i have nothing to loose. do they really take that long to grow? i thought i heard somewhere they grew a foot or so a year? anyhow thanks for the info.
     
  6. jwayne

    jwayne Member

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    well in this area the seedlings if left outside and if they survive another winter will grow slower but larger ones here in north MS seem to grow fine.
     
  7. kromie101

    kromie101 Member

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    what can i do to protect the little ones coming out of the ground for the winter?
     

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