Root-pruning scheme for palms in pots?

17 years ago

I was hoping to get feedback on the following, I don't think I've seen it mentioned before, my apologies if I am repeating:

One of the main issues with growing palms in containers here in the north is that eventually many species will outgrow their containers. Traditional root-pruning and repotting is not a good idea as many species will not cooperate. So here's an idea which I may try-

1. Plant the palm in a suitable plastic nursery pot, and drill lots of large holes along the sides. The potting mix will be something like 100% perlite, so that it remains stable for a long time.

2. This pot is submerged into a larger pot, and the space filled in with a more typical potting mix.

3. During the growing season, the roots will grow through the holes in the smaller pot, into the soil mix.

4. When the time comes to repot one spring, the entire smaller pot is removed and all the peripheral roots trimmed back to the holes. Shock to the tree should be minimal because the majority of the rootball remains undisturbed in the smaller pot, and the root-pruning will encourage the growth of fresh new fine roots. The pot is then replanted again as in step 2.

Theoretically, this may slow down large and fast growing palms enough to keep them manageable indoors for the winter.

Thoughts?

Comments (2)

palmpunk
17 years ago
It sounds like it should work, although it's probably unnecessary. As long as you keep the palm in a small enough pot and don't upsize, its growth should be stunted anyway. I had a Mexican fan palm in a 25 gallon pot. The last summer I had it, it did not grow visibly larger, and frond production slowed way down in comparison to previous summers (I had it a total of 5 or 6 years). Finally that following winter, it rotted when I put it out too early. Water collected in the boots and was held against the trunk-another reason to remove old boots! When I removed it, I was amazed to see how rootbound it was and how large of a root system a 4-5 foot Robusta actually has. So, I blame the previous summer's atypical slow growth on the pot being too small.
garyfla_gw
17 years ago
Hi
Have been doing something similar for several years with the goal of having dwarf palms. I was warned that you can't really Bonsat a palm and root pruning will result in either a dead plant or fail to mature. So far this has proven to be true.
But hey,if your cramped for space you can still have a very attractive dwarf. gary