Ok so i bought a wind mill palm for my front yard about six years ago and it was a foot tall then if that,it is now ten feet tall from ground to longest new leaf shoot.I was told it would grow alot slower and not mature to seed or pollenate (not sure of sex) till its at least twelve years old but its huge and has been sending out ten to twelve seed pods every year for the last three years.....they open up and drop what apears to be a crud load of seeds.....i havent seen any pollen so is it a male or female? and when is the proper time to pollenate.. In the past i have cut the arms off cause i was told it was better on growing the tree faster but now i want to make some babys!!!and they keep coming back in big numbers compared to other arms on palms i see?.the seed arms are just pokeing out and they tend to grow very fast almost overnight gaining inches! There are many windmill palms scattered here in my area but they dont look as hearty or healthy as mine...whats the deal? where can i get pollen and if from someones palm here in my town..whens the time? Thanks for any help..ya' see im a big truck driving manly man who's a closet gardener with a palm fetish...please help me ,my friends think im nutt's! P.S. The garden center where i got the palm from said to use a sandy mix when i planted it six years ago but instead i used one big bag of cow manure and one big bag of general potting mix and i guess i had awesome results? Sand in my oppinion is a no no!
Do't worry about the palm fetish, a few of us have it. My wife reckons you can't move in our garden anymore for the palm trees. If as you say there are lots of Windmill palms in your area then it maybe that your tree has already been polinated. The best way to find out is to start growing some of the seeds you have. You may need to experiment a little. But this is what I have done with Phoenix palms with plenty of success. Take a few seeds from the pod while fresh and plant them in a pot with a sterile medium or even freh peat if you don't have any.(Lots of people are going to object to that one I know. Sorry guys!) then takes some of the seeds and dry them out and do the same plant them in the same way, say a few weeks later also when they are starting to brown of from the tree but before they are ready to fall collect a few of those and put them in a 3rd pot. then its just a matter of waiting to see what comes up. keep them moist but not too wet, I've found that the fresher the seeds the better the results. If nothing comes up it may have been that they were sterile. But remember that some palm seeds can take from 4 to 12 months to sprout. Good luck with it! Nath
