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| Photo Credit: Juanita Popenoe |
| The soil line on this uprooted and cut pygmy date palm is pointed out. |
This may surprise you, but palms are different than trees and are really more like a grass. They generally have only a single growing point (exceptions are clustering palms), and they won’t branch and continue to grow if that growing point is destroyed. They also have a restricted zone of root initiation, meaning that no roots can form above a certain point on the trunk. Many palm roots won’t branch and continue to grow when they’re cut, but they’ll die back to the main trunk where a new root must grow. Unlike other trees, the trunk and roots of palms never get any larger in diameter than what is set at the time the bud or root develops. These differences make the planting and maintenance of a palm different than with other plants.
At planting, it’s critical to get the zone of root initiation close to the soil surface, with a small part aboveground. Palms that are planted too deeply won’t be any better supported. (In fact, deep-planted roots will die from lack of oxygen, just like with other plants.) Remove the palm from its pot or root wrapping, locate the soil line and be sure not to plant the tree any deeper than that. Palms naturally produce some roots from the trunk portion above the ground – something like the prop roots on corn. Take care not to damage existing roots as you place the plant in a hole dug to be the same size as the rootball. (Palms usually have a very compact rootball and no spreading is required.)
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