Hardy Tropicals UK

My transplanted Trachycarpus is doing great and contrary to the norm its still throwing up spears, lots of them. Perhaps the month of rain in April eased the transplant?

Its been fed Nigels pink powder, and then palm booster once every 2 weeks.

This has only happened on the lower leaves since getting it, but they have this 1-2 inch brown scorched effect?








The entire crown has really opened up as well, part of new spears rising?

Cordy, i think that is quite normal with a transplant as i have a few that have done the same. They soon grow it out. karl.

You could trim them back with a pair of old scissors [ called 'brown-bitting'], but they'll eventually die back anyway naturally, looks like it's compensating for the loss though with that new growth.

Cheers!

on a Trachycarpus F if left will the lower leaves eventually point downwards and lose some colour, or do they always die?

cordyman wrote:Cheers!

on a Trachycarpus F if left will the lower leaves eventually point downwards and lose some colour, or do they always die?

They could do either.

I would not worry too much about the old leaves on a transplant. Your main concern is the growing point and yours looks healthy as can be.

Like the rest of us they will always die. Only a matter of time. Weather they hang down depends if you let them. Its called old age If it offends you chop it off.

Yeh, its normal.

Around July this transplant went into a major sulk, I guess the early spear movement was before the shock of being dug up set in


This year all my trachys have been throwing up new spears, at good speed, but this was just stuck, not even a mm of movement Thought it might be dead.

But after 10 months of sulk the tippex markers have finally budged in this last week, at first I thought I was seeing things, but they now have some definite breaks in the lines! Is a 10 month sulk about the going rate?









It lives

I`ve had some Palms that sulk and some that just keep growing as though they`ve always been there. i`ve got one small Waggie that i planted out 18 months ago and it just sits there doing nothing. Another two small ones that i planted around the same time have never stopped growing. My large Cerifera got browned leaf tips after i planted it out and it sulked for about 8months but now it`s going a storm. I think sometimes it just depends on the plant.

jungle jas wrote:Like the rest of us they will always die. Only a matter of time. Weather they hang down depends if you let them. Its called old age If it offends you chop it off.

now now,there are some older ladies use this forum,dont want to be giving them ideas

The way a Trachycarpus grows it's roots is, the tips are extending out into the soil and it starts new roots from the base as it grows, to allow more water/nutrient uptake. Digging up will result in many, if not all, root tips being severed. Trachycarpus roots branch so palm booster can help with bulking up the rootball after transplanting, but the sulk is while the rootball plays catchup with the crown. The roots left have to work overtime to supply the crown, and at the same time it requires energy to repair/restore the root/crown ratio. Once this is restored, then normal growth resumes.

The length of the sulk may be linked to the extent of root damage in the transplant, but some field grow palms may sulk for 3 or 4 years.

Palmbooster can help to repair root damage, but in addition a regular foliar feed, will help supply the crown with nutrients the roots can't supply. Also seaweed extract is a growth enhancer. so a combination of the 3 on Trachies may reduce the sulk time.

I thought mine was due to too much sun last year, I hated seeing its damage,
As it gets taller, it has new spears coming up I will prune the bad out.

Andy P wrote:I`ve had some Palms that sulk and some that just keep growing as though they`ve always been there. i`ve got one small Waggie that i planted out 18 months ago and it just sits there doing nothing. Another two small ones that i planted around the same time have never stopped growing. My large Cerifera got browned leaf tips after i planted it out and it sulked for about 8months but now it`s going a storm. I think sometimes it just depends on the plant.

Yeah too many factors to pin it down to one thing

Dave Brown wrote:The way a Trachycarpus grows it's roots is, the tips are extending out into the soil and it starts new roots from the base as it grows, to allow more water/nutrient uptake. Digging up will result in many, if not all, root tips being severed. Trachycarpus roots branch so palm booster can help with bulking up the rootball after transplanting, but the sulk is while the rootball plays catchup with the crown. The roots left have to work overtime to supply the crown, and at the same time it requires energy to repair/restore the root/crown ratio. Once this is restored, then normal growth resumes.

The length of the sulk may be linked to the extent of root damage in the transplant, but some field grow palms may sulk for 3 or 4 years.

Palmbooster can help to repair root damage, but in addition a regular foliar feed, will help supply the crown with nutrients the roots can't supply. Also seaweed extract is a growth enhancer. so a combination of the 3 on Trachies may reduce the sulk time.

I've been using palm booster but not never tried a foliar feed on any of my plants, worth looking into!

kata wrote:I thought mine was due to too much sun last year, I hated seeing its damage,

trachispear1.jpg

As it gets taller, it has new spears coming up I will prune the bad out.

You'll find the new growth which is climatised to your garden will be a lot tougher than the growth it came with. The new leaves on all my imported trachys look so stiff and deep green.

Heres an update just over a month and a bit on, the tipex marks are way out of kilt now They were down near the crown and look at them now






I've got the two outer spears and three central spears opening up




Then further down another two on the way!




So from sulky nothing, to 7 spears, well chuffed

This has happened to all mine apart from one, a Naini Tal in pretty deep shade that, if anything, seems to have got a deeper shade of green.

My Manipur which was planted a few months back is really suffering with this.