Palm Trees Propagation - Growing New Palm Trees
Growing new plants saves you money and it is fun. It is an amazing experience watching your seeds turning into seedlings and then turning into trees. Here are two main methods of propagating palm trees.
Propagating Palm Trees Through Seed
You can grow new palm trees by germinating seeds. The process of planting seeds till the seeds turn into little plants is called seed germination. This is not only the most common method of palm tree propagation but also the easiest one.
All true palms can be propagated through seeds. Don't worry if you don't have a palm tree that produces fruit, seeds are available for most palm tree species. Now if you have a fruit-producing palm tree that you want to propagate further, here are a few steps for you.
1) Allow the fruit to ripe completely.
2) Once ripe, collect the fruit.
3)Remove the fruit coating from seeds. Make sure that you remove every single particle of fruit from the seeds otherwise it can catch fungus with will kill the plant. It is hard to remove the fruit particles completely from seeds of some palm species, in such case soak the seeds in warm water for a day or two and this will make it easy for you to remove the fruit pulp completely.
From this point onwards the steps mentioned are the same for both i.e. collected seeds and seeds bought from the market.
1) Soak the seeds in warm water for 2 to 3 days.
2) Prepare a rich, quick draining potting mix.
3) Plant the seeds in this soil mix and water it.
4) Keep the soil moist. The soil should be just moist, not soggy. Seeds can take several months to germinate.
5) Don't expose seeds or seedlings to direct sunlight.
Propagating Palm Trees through Offshoot Removal
Various types of palm trees produce offshoots or pups. These pups or suckers can be removed to plant as new plants. You can start by removing the offshoot right from the base without damaging the mother plant. Make sure that you don't disturb the mother plant while removing the pup. Plant this pup into a well-drained, rich potting mix and water it. Make sure that you keep the soil moist almost all the time. You can also cover it with a plastic bag to retain the moisture. Keep the pot with the pup in shade. It will develop a rooting system. The time required for development of roots vary with species. New growth indicates the development of rooting system.