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Pony tail palm

14 years ago

My pony tail palm had a near death experience this winter. It is very large (>6 ft tall) and got left out during the Houston freezing weather. It was semi protected on the south side of my house so it didn't die but most the foliage was burned badly. It is a two trunk with a large ball. The palm has responded from its scare by putting out dozens of little tufts. There are three or more at the top of each stalk. Dozens sprouting from each trunk at all heights and ten or more on the ball itself. How should I handle this. I wouldn't mind more trunks from the ball but what about the others

Thanks

Dawn

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Comments (3)

hortster
14 years ago
Funny, we both posted about ponytail palm within minutes of each other - difference is that yours was zapped and mine was whacked back intentionally. It seems that ponytails' natural reaction is to re-sprout profusely. Will be watching this post as well!
hortster
hortster
14 years ago
From the responses to my thread, in this forum, "Is this normal" it looks like the thing to do is cut off any dead tips and let the new sprouts grow. You can let this happen and make further "directional" selections later to reshape the plant. Apparently ponytail palm is able to recover from trauma quite well.
hortster
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That is new growth, but it's new growth that occurred without sufficient lighting. Ponytail palms love lots of light. As much sunlight as possible. I grow mine in direct sunlight all throughout spring, summer, and autumn. And when I bring it indoors for the winter, it does just fine in lesser light. When you water it, don't get any water in the crown of the leaves, or it could lead to them rotting. Though, when I have it outdoors, I don't worry about this one bit. Just when I have it indoors. Also, don't trim off the brown tips of the leaves. This tends to happen naturally, and if you cut it away, then the pruned ends will just die back even further. It's best to just leave them as they are. Give you ponytails as much sunlight as possible and those pale centers will green up they way they're supposed to. Unfortunately, those leaves won't perk up, but it will quickly grow newer leaves to cover them up. They need bright, direct sunlight to grow their leaves perky with that graceful curvature to them. Don't worry. Ponytail palms are hardy plants. Just give it some time to recover. :)
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That's an interesting question - I'd answer with 'both'. They're as you've noted branches, and they're young enough (and not woody) to detach and grow them as pups and into separate plants, I'd guess. I've never done it but I think it can be done.
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tropicalzone7
14 years ago
Ponytail palms are really good at handling damage. Mine was really badly damaged by scale (I mean really bad), so bad that I had to strip off every leaf except for the very middle leaves. These leaves were leaning over and could not even support itself so I had to tape them for a month. Now its slowly growing back scale free and the new leaves can finally support itself. Just goes to show how willing they are to grow. As long as its respouting, its far from dead and just handle it as you would normally, water on warm days and keep it in a nice sunny spot. Some fertilizer would really help too.
Good luck!

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