Pruning Palms

[pixiemermaid]

I have a 5-stalk palm house plant. Two of the stalks are long and thin and empty except for their sprouted leaves which are now brushing the ceiling. I would like to cut off those sprouts and re-plant them in the (huge, new, oversized) planter that the entire plant is in. Is this possible? Would I be injuring the whole plant? I did this once with a corn plant and it worked, so I hope I can do this to the palm. :shock:

if this is a real palm you cannot cut off the top and replant it.
Both parts will die in the process.
However, if this is a clumping palm rather than 5 single ones you can
cut off the too tall ones, live with only 3 stems for a while, and eventually
get new shoots from the bottom out of the same root clump.

HTH, and aloha,

Maren

[Newt]

Hi Pixermermaid,

Take a look through here and click on the names of the plants that are palms to see if you can id your palm. Then we can go from there.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/i...dexcommon.html

Newt

[pixiemermaid]

Hi Newt,

Thanks for responding. The truth is, I believe that what I have may actually be some kind of draceana. The leaves look a whole lot like a draceana (they start out up and then arch down. (':oops:') (It was a new business-warming gift). Do you still think that I can prune the top of the tallest two?

[quote="Newt"]Hi Pixermermaid,

Take a look through here and click on the names of the plants that are palms to see if you can id your palm. Then we can go from there.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/i...dexcommon.html
:oops: :oops:

[Newt]

Hi Pixiemermaid,

I just realized that I spelled your name wrong in my last post. So sorry! :oops:

There are many different varieities of dracaena and they can all be cut and propagated. You should get a couple of sprouts with new growth from the stalk you leave in the pot, so you can cut it twice if you like. Cut once for the length of the new one you want, and if the stem left in the pot is too tall, just cut that again.

Do you know which one you have? Take a look at these. I suspect it's the first two sites. The last two are different varieties of corn plant which are also dracaena. They are all dracaena.

http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week215.shtml
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/i...caenamarg.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/i...caenawarn.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/i...caenafrag.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/i...aenajanet.html

Here's some sites on propagation. You can do air layering and the cane cutting with the extra length of the cane.

http://www.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/g...ropagation.htm
http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplo...ort/g06560.htm

I'm not sure that you can plant the new ones in the same pot. You will have to see how rootbound the original plant is in it's pot.

Newt

[pixiemermaid]

Thanks, Newt!

I think I have the Madagascar Dragon! ':D'

[Newt]

You are very welcome! Good luck with the propagation.

Newt