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bethcohen54

My Ponytail Palm isn’t thriving anymore.

Beth Cohen
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago

It sounds like a country song. Seriously, it’s just not growing much - it’s been about this size for two years. Also it greens up a bit after fertilization, but just doesn’t seem healthy. The pictures make it look greener than it is. I’m considering cutting the branchlets(?) off at the base but not sure if they would regenerate. Any advice is much appreciated. (And I know it’s not a palm)



Comments (5)

  • kinzyjr {Lakeland, FL - USDA: 9b, Record: 20F}
    4 years ago

    How much light does it get per day and how intense is the light?

  • Beth Cohen
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    The window on the left faces east and it stays pretty much where I have it on the right of the photo. When I move it to the screen porch it develops a mealybug infestation. I guess I should be thankful it's still alive! I appreciate your help!


  • James (zone5b)
    4 years ago

    I'd say give it more sunlight if you want it to grow. Maybe repot it too. But be careful what you wish for, these plants can get quite large.

    I have two that I got about 15 years ago, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. Now they are 5 feet tall (including pot). They go out in the summer and by a sunny window in winter.

    My experience is transplanting to progressively bigger pots leads to progressively bigger plants. Regular root pruning and putting back into the same size pot with fresh new soil yields a healthy plant that stays about the same size.



  • Beth Cohen
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    James, thank you so much. I’ve been hesitant to report as I once read to keep it in a smaller than normal pot size. But as you advise, sooner or later everything needs to expand! That’s great, encouraging advice.

  • tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
    4 years ago

    Hi, Beth. Root congestion creates stress, which is made manifest in a plant that doesn't grow. When a plant isn't growing it's an indication it's, at best, at a break-even point in terms of it's ability to create enough food (plants make their own food, sugar and other biocompounds, during photosynthesis) and obtain enough nutrition to fuel growth. Whenever a plant is creating more energy/food than it needs to keep its systems humming along, it grows additively (gets thicker) and multiplicatively (grows more leaves and branches, and it stores the surplus in files of cells laid down in the cambium. If/when you repot, and it's better to repot than pot up, you'll see what you think is a growth spurt, but it's really not a growth spurt. What you'll see id the plant returning to how it would normally have been growing were it not for the root congestion.

    You'll often hear growers advise others the plant prefers to be root bound, but rood bound = stress, and no plant performs better (insofar as it's level of vitality is concerned) under stress than it does when free of stress. Granted, the plant is very well known for it's tolerance of stress due to tight roots and other cultural factors, but what a plant tolerates has nothing to do with what it prefers.

    I'd do a full repot into a very fast draining and well-aerated medium and start it on a regular fertilizing program that takes into consideration the fact that it tends to go quiescent in the darker months of winter.

    Al

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