Monday, September 1, 2008

Planting Queen Palm Tree

Queen Palm Tree likes warm weather and high humidity. You can plant palms any time of the year but they establish much faster if planted during warm months. I takes 2-3 months for palm trees to develop new roots if planted during April - October. Here are step-by-step planting instructions for planting Queen Palm Tree:

1. Choose a spot. When picking a place for planting your palm, consider that Queen palm tree is a fast growing palm that can grow up to 50ft. Power lines above the Queen palm, might be a problem in the future. Queen palm likes full sun, so make sure your spot is getting enough sunlight during the day.

2.Dig a hole. As a rule of thumb, your hole size should be twice as big as the root ball of your palm.

3. After you are done digging, cut the walls of the hole with a small shovel, just a little bit to make the walls a little softer. That will help palm tree roots to penetrate through easier.

4. Since Queen palm likes well drained soil, mix some sand into the soil. That will help to improve the drainage. Do NOT add any fertilizer to the mix. If you do, it will burn palm roots and your palm will die.

The best soil mix is based on Canadian peat moss. I found two different types on the Amazon. That's what I would use to make sure my soil has excellent drainage:

5. A lot of times new planted palm trees experience "transplant shock". To minimize the stress use the original soil form the pot around the root ball of the palm.

6. Pure some water into the bottom of the hole and start adding soil. Push down the soil to eliminate air pockets. Add more water and plant your palm.

7. Add soil around your palm and again push it down around the root ball of the palm to avoid air pockets. Make sure you palm is not planted too deep or too high. This can kill your Queen palm. It should be on the ground level.

8. After you done with soil create a barrier around the tree. It should be around 2-3 inches. This will hold water and will help keep the soil moist longer.

9. Another great tips to keep the soil moist is to add some mulch. 2-3 inches of mulch should be enough. I like to use organic mulch that is made from natural forest products. It's so cheap, like $5, you should definitely get it. I like to use organic mulch that is made from natural forest products. Scott Organic Mulch lasts for 1 year:

10. If your Queen palm is few feet tall put a brace around it. You can make it from few wooden sticks and a strap. This brace will protect your Queen Palm Tree from wind and storm.

11. Water your palm and you are done! Don't forget to water your new planted Queen Palm every day during the first week. You can water it every other day for the second week and only 3 times a week after.

Important Tip: I know that Queen palm likes full sun, but if it's a young palm you should protect it from the direct sun for few weeks after planting, especially during summer month. It can get very hot in Florida and your new planted palm already got stressed by being transplanted. I get emails from people who completely fried their new Queen palms by leaving them in the direct sun during hottest days of the summer.

Here is an easy fix: cover it with something like umbrella from 11am - 6pm. And use common sense. If it's very hot, water it a little more.

I hope this article on Planting Queen Palm Tree was useful. Let me know if you have good tips on planting queen palms.

Have a great day!

Susan

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi! I have a situation that I'm trying to figure out with two queen palm trees. I moved into a house that has two queen palms planted in the backyard about 4 feet apart from each other. From what the neighbors have told me, they've grown considerably in about 3 years and are about 20 ft. tall now. Rather than being planted slightly outward-facing from parallel, they were planted slightly inward-facing! I have this idea to correct the “problem” and dig down to expose a portion of the roots on one tree and “reposition” it by tilting it slightly outward. What do you think? Is it possible? Will I damage the root system? How deep do the roots go now? Thanks for your help! Mike