Weekly Garden Tip

April 16, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

Most people don’t want to think about it yet, but there is only a short time remaining before we begin another hurricane season June 1. Although many landscapes are looking significantly better as we’re getting growing conditions more favorable, if you check area palms they still look pretty sad and will unfortunately for some time to come.

Palms don’t regrow new fronds very quickly and in some cases only put out fronds about once every 6 to 8 weeks. This means it will take at least a full year in many landscapes before palms resume a more normal appearance. In the meantime though there are some things you can do to help palms recover more quickly: fertilize with an appropriate palm fertilizer about every other month and make sure during periods of dry conditions such as we’re experiencing now that palms are watered at least once a week thoroughly.

In many landscapes people also keep grass or other competing plants away from the bases of palms and this way palms receive the benefits of all the fertilizer without it being taken by other plants.

If you’re wanting to install new palms or replacement palms, many area nurseries have good inventories at this time of year so you should be able to find appropriate palms for your landscape.

If you’re putting in good sized palms remember to have them well secured or braced since palms take longer to establish strong anchoring root systems than many other types of plants and with the hurricane season almost upon us you don’t want it to go down if we get some strong winds in the early part of the summer.

Remember, too, that when planting palms they need to be planted at the same depth they were in the container or growing in the field if it was field dug. Many people injure palms or even kill them by planting them too deeply and this causes slow suffocation of the palm roots and may result in many disease problems and other unpleasant things as well.

If you don’t have a lot of experience in growing palms, there are many excellent books on palms in area gift shops and book stores and you could also attend one of the monthly meetings of the Palm Beach County Palm and Cycad Society the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Mounts Building Auditorium, 531 North Military Trail in West Palm Beach.

Meetings are very informative and many club members are very experienced palm growers for many years and can certainly answer any questions about the care of palms in our area.

The Palm Beach County Extension office also has some publications on palms that are free and they can be picked up at their local offices. You can also dial the Extension Service for advice about palm care. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.