Last summer, we had a ponytail/elephant foot palm on the deck. Someone or something pulled the top out of it. The top was laying on the deck. Now the plant is inside the house, and not doing too good. There is no new growth coming out of the top, and the growth that is there is not looking good. The other one that suffered no damage outside is doing great! Is there anything that can be done for the sick one, or should it be pitched?
first thing you need to do is take your pruners (the large loppers you cut branches with) dip them in a bleach solution and cut the thick stem about two inches below where the ponytail was. It sounds like the ponytail part might have succumbed to rot or mealies. Dab the cut spot with rubbing alcohol and water the trunk a bit and place it in a south window for now. Once it dries well, new shoots should start growing from near the severed area. If not, feel the "foot" or trunk and see if it feels too soft and yielding. Kinda like the skin of a melon. If you have no sign of growth in the next six weeks, but the trunk still is firm, hang on until spring and you can put it outside and possibly it will sprout replacement leaves. One of the worst enemies of these palms is mealy bugs. they get down in the folds of all those leaves and chew until they all dissattach. (Lowe's might have replacement plants now for $5.98 for a 2 gallon pot, might give it a check, we have that size at our store now for those prices. A new shipment of tropicals came in and they're going for 3@ $9.99 and that's gallon pots! Let me know how it goes when you prune it back and if it finally sprouts new leaves.
This plant...not a palm...is very sensitive to overwatering. Here in the desert SW I water my potted once a month!
Beaucarnea recurvata or B. stricta is an Agavaceae
It may produce a new leaf rosette in the spring but if the caudex is getting soft and mushy, you should throw it out.
How should it be watered? With that wet stuff that comes out of the tap, of course.
The real question this time of the year is: How often should it be watered?
Since Beaucarnea go dormant over the winter, they need only enough water to keep the thickened caudex from shriveling up.
Water the plant thoroughly only once a month until new growth appears in the spring. Never let them sit in standing water for any length of time.
Common names are meaningless. Beaucarnea recurvata is a caudiciform woody monocotyledon from Mexico but is not at all closely related to Agave or Yucca, other than being a flowering plant.
Hi,
I have one here in metro-phoenix. When it cools off like it is now I don't water it at all. All it gets is the rain-a-natural.
When the temperature starts soaring again I water it weekly, and fertilize with a balanced fertilizer. It grows in leaps and bounds.
This is a great plant. At first when I bought it, and had it in the house several years ago, it did nothing much. Now outside, in the last two years it has grown to two feet. It was maybe 4 inches when I first purchased it.
Mary
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