Guidelines for Encephalartos Container Sizing?

9 years ago

Are there any general rules about how to size a container that will hold a two year old Encephalartos Cycad through maybe the first 10 years of life? In other words, I want to oversize the container and not have to worry about it for some time. Obviously some of these plants do not grow to more than three feet, and others grow to 20+ feet, so the guideline I am looking for would be to something like to size the container to X% as deep as the plant will grow high, or 100% as wide as the span of the palms, whatever. I can research for each subtype how big it gets and then try to apply the guideline against that.

Do these plants tend to have deep tap roots, or do they have roots that extend out at the surface, or do they have both types of roots?

If grown in a container, how often should they be repotted? I plan on using very well draining soil that will not compact, and I will add fertilizer separately.

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Comments (2)

Josue Diaz
9 years ago
Interesting question. I just repotted about a hundred three-year old encephalartos into varying size containers. Encephalartos ferox all went into 1 gallon containers. E natalensis x trispinosis went into mostly 1 gallon containers, though some went into 3 gallon containers. Encephalartos transvenosis all went into 5 gallon containers. I potted cycas revoluta x debaoensis into 5 gallon containers. Though all of the encephalartos had deep tap roots, transvenosis had a more robust root system than ferox or the hybrid natalensis x trispinosis. Ferox had a smaller root system and the caudex wasn't as robust, hence they went into 1 gallon containers. Cycas had a much more aggressive root system than any of the encephalartos hands down.

In general, I think that a5 or 15 gallon container could sustain a cycad for a very long time. As long as they have good drainage.
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked Josue Diaz
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
Original Author
9 years ago
@Josue I was thinking of using 22 gallon containers, so that is very re-assuring.

Just as an aside, do you have an opinion on the best "small" (< 5 feet tall) encephalartos, in terms of plants that would bring the most money at maturity in 10 years?
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