Growing Red Palm Made Easy

GROWING RED PALM MADE EASY

The red palm is the most attractive of the Palmaceae family and favorite for landscaping and potted decorative plant because of its bright red color that adds it attractiveness.

A native of Indonesia red palm is actually growing in lowland areas submerged in water bordering tidal rivers. It only shows that they thrives best when the place is abundant with moisture and humidity.

Red palm grows successfully in acidic soil (pH 5 or less), where it produces an intense bright red color. It has also the clustering habit producing numerous suckers from the base of the plant and developed into a big clump.

The leaf bases which wrap around the stem are an exotic crimson. The red color extends to the leafstalk that bears the leaflets.

How to propagate Red Palm

Propagating red palm needs your skill to do it because it is a delicate plant. Home gardeners usually fails since they don’t know the proper way to separate the suckers from the mother plant.

However, the most practical way of propagating red palm is by division where the plant is grown in a size 12 pot using a very loose growing soil medium.

When you see lot of suckers with roots of their own, you have to take them out from the pot and shake off some loose soil that stick to the roots.

Separate the suckers carefully with sufficient roots then plant individually in pots with a porous soil. Place the newly potted plants in a cool shaded area and keep them moist.

After a couple of weeks from the shade when they are already fully well established you can transfer them to a place where they can be exposed to the sun.

Propagating by Seeds

Growing seeds is done by collecting seeds from a ten year old growing plants. When the seeds are ripe, pick them from the tree. Don’t wait for them to fall to the ground, but others prefer to let the seeds sprout before collecting the growing seedlings from the ground.

But if you want to have a more vigorous seedlings, it is advised to sow the seeds in the germinating tray. Seedlings uprooted from the ground may not survive because some roots may be damaged that may affect the growth of seedlings.

I recommend to pick the ripe fruit since fresh seeds are easier to sprout. Palm seeds have short viability period (1 month), so that they should be sown within that period.

However, their viability can be extended by placing the seed in a refrigerated container.

To grow the seeds in germinating or pots, prepare the soil medium with a mixture of coco coir dust and sterilized garden soil.

Don’t bury the seeds too deep, just barely covered. Maintain the moisture content of the soil not to let them dry out. In doing so, the seeds will be delayed in sprouting.

Fresh seeds that are moderately moist throughout will germinate in less than a month. There are instances, however, when the seeds take much longer time to germinate.

Seedlings grow very slowly, that within the first three -year period, they only reach a mere one foot height and the red color will not show up.

Once the plant has developed a good number of roots, that’s the time the growth becomes faster.

To make elongation faster, place them in a shady place, and give them ample amount of fertilizer.

That’s it!

You have been given the right procedure to propagate Red Palm.

Follow the steps correctly, and wow! You’ll get the vigorous growing Red Palm tree.

And yes. You can earn lots of money raising Red Palm.

Red Palm command a high price. A six inch seedlings cost around $1-$2 dollars.

You see, if you have 1000 seedlings, that’s money. And you don’t have to work that hard.

Once they are fully established, your only work is watering them to maintain moisture requirements of the plant.

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Crisologo Ramasasa is a freelance writer who writes articles on Home Gardening and Internet marketing tips. Subscribe his Free gardening and Internet marketing tips. Visit his site at: www.crisramasasa.com. Get a Free copy of his latest ebook “Discover How To Get Started in Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”. There are lots of information you can get with this materials.