A burning caryota
La Fishtail palm tree It is a plant of the Arecaceae family native to Southeast Asia that is characterized by having leaves composed of wedge-shaped leaflets, of a very decorative green color. It is one of the most suitable for mild climates where there are no significant frosts or temperatures rise much more than 30ºC during the summer.
Sometimes you can find it in nurseries as an indoor plant, but the truth is that it is not always easy to get it to adapt to home conditions. Let us know how do you care this beautiful palm tree.
The Fishtail Palm belongs to the botanical genus caryota, which includes about 13 species. They are fast growing plants if the weather is good, but it is rather slow in hot climates such as the Mediterranean, taking out only 2 or 3 new leaves a year. Most of the species of the genus are unicaules, that is, they have only one trunk; However, the mild C. it is multicaule.
Besides being very ornamental, they have a peculiarity and that is that after flowering for the first time, they die leaving a lot of seeds. It is, therefore, hapaxanthic palm trees. But you don't have to worry: the seeds germinate easily in just two months, placing them in a sealed bag filled with vermiculite moistened with water and placed near a heat source. And speaking of heat, let's see what Caryota need to grow well.
If you want to have one or more copies, follow our advice:
- Location: outside in semi-shade, or inside in a room with plenty of natural light.
- Soil or substrate: grows in neutral or slightly acidic soils; in limestone it usually has chlorosis problems. If you want to have it in a pot, you can use black peat mixed with 30% perlite.
- Irrigation: 2 to 3 times a week in summer, and 1 to 2 a week the rest of the year.
- Subscriber: it is important to fertilize in spring and summer with liquid organic fertilizers, such as guano, or with specific mineral fertilizers for palm trees.
- Pruning: It's not necesary.
- Rusticity: supports very mild and occasional frosts of up to -2ºC.
To finish, I leave you with some photos of the Fishtail Palm:
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- mild caryota
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- Caryota, from my collection.
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- Caryota obtusa (in the background)
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- Inflorescence of Caryota urens.
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Hello, I have two palm trees in my garden and I never thought that they would start to grow so much and so fast. How can I stop their growth and how much will they grow
Hello, Enrique.
It is impossible to stop the growth of plants. However, you can slow it down. To do this, you have to water them little, just enough and necessary, and avoid fertilizing them.
These plants usually exceed 10 meters in height, although there are exceptions such as roebellini phoenix that stays in the 2-3 meters, or the Chamaerops humilis which does not usually reach 4m.
Greetings.