Yeah, those are ponytail palms. Their leaves can get quite long like that. There can be some variations to their leaves. I have one whose leaves are getting rather long; another that has leaves that are short and are a light, pale green color; and one with short leaves that are dark green, with a purplish tint to them. Which is funny, because I thought they all looked pretty much the same when I bought them. It wasn't until much later that I began to notice how each of them looked different from each other.

Thanks, Photo! Now I know what to look out for. I might even offer to pot the bulbs up the next time I see the shop's owner on the off chance that he'll offer me one. I may not be larcenous, but I can be a little wily when it's called for.

Ponytails are fairly easy to find plants. Every year, my local Wal-Mart garden centers always have them in stock. And they don't cost very much either. Though, at this time of year, they're usually sold out. Mine has one left on their shelves. I would keep an eye out for them in the springtime. That way, you can sort through all of their new inventory and pick the one(s) that appeals to you the most. Even though they're all pretty much the same, they each still have their own unique qualities. Some have a thicker caudex, some have thicker leaves, thinner leaves, darker leaves, lighter green leaves, longer leaves, or some with a reddish/purplish tint to them. You name it. Smaller plants all pretty much look alike, and are hard to tell apart. But larger plants make these unique traits much more apparent. This will be a plant that you'll be caring for for many years. It should be one that appeals to you and brightens your day when you see it. :)

7:30? Hah! Cruzer (yep, that's the name he answers to) would still be asleep. He'd be tickled to be called The Coffee Whisperer, though. He meant to open a one man specialty roasting company to finance trips to Central and South America, but after a few years he had to hire staff and add a few seats to deal with the crowds. A couple years later he buckled and moved opening time from 10:00 to 8:00, but he still gets up late and spends most of his time roasting and delivering coffee to restaurants and shops. I domrun into him every few weeks, so I'll see what happens.

Wish me luck!

..... goes w/o saying. Good luck!

Al

Just thought I'd hijack this thread with a pic I took of some we had to get rid of recently. They had been in the same brick built trough since 2002 and were at risk of cracking the walls; as you know this species (Beaucarnea/Nolina/whatever it is this week) keeps getting fatter. They started off as standard 5" pot examples (like the empty one in front), now look at them.

Yes, they were a sod to get out, before anyone asks. Thankfully they don't grow very many roots, so it was just levering them out without destroying the neighbouring plants, or the brick walls.

Impressive!

I've been looking through pictures of healthy PTPs so I'll be able to tell Cruzer what they'd look like if they were repotted. The difference is amazing--even though his bulbs are still pretty small, I think I can promise him three pretty palms, each of which would have a bigger and nicer head of leaves than all three bulbs have together now!

Success! Cruzer was happy to turn them over for rehab, and said I could pot them separately if I wanted. Of courseI need to balance the plant's needs with the lack of attention they're likely to get from him or the baristas, so now I'm off to search for threads about ponytail palm care.

Nice!

With wintertime just around the corner, all they'll need is a bright sunny window, and a good watering once a month. They are excellent at storing water in their caudices (trunks). If you water them any more than that, then they'll try to start growing newer leaves too soon. And those leaves won't get enough sunlight. They'll grow limp and stay that way. It's best to hold off on watering them, giving them water only once a month. When spring rolls around, they'll naturally start growing new leaves on their own. When the weather warms up enough, stick them outdoors in direct sunlight and increase their waterings. Ponytail palms love lots of direct sunlight when they're actively growing. In the meantime, a bright sunny window will do.

As for mine, they don't even get that. They sit on my plant shelf all winter long and don't really get any sunlight. My plant shelf isn't even near any window. But my ponytails have been outdoors all summer long soaking up more than enough direct sunlight. So they can easily handle my winter neglect.

Thanks, Photo. I'm really not familiar with plants that go through cycles; the closest thing I've seen is my mom sticking her geraniums in the basement for the winter.

I wonder where I should keep the pot. My other plants are clustered around the north window, which they get a little morning light plus supplemental light all day, and take turns at the south window for a few hours of direct morning light. Would it be okay sitting several feet toward the interior of the room in weaker indirect light, or does it need a spot that's really dim?

Also, do you think the bulbs would tolerate repotting now? There can't be more than a few cups of soil in their 6" grower's pot, and it's bone dry at the moment, so it's a perfect time to give it a brief soak and nice flush and to take a peek at whatever's going on in there.

They've been living year round in all-day bright indirect light, which is what they'll go back to when I'm done with them unless Cruzer takes them home. The plan is to put them in 5-1-1, either individually in six inch pots or together in an eight inch pot, but I'm not sure whether it would be better to do it now and keep them somewhere they can doze and recover all winter, or to wait until summer when I'll be doing the other plants that haven't already been repotted and give them a few weeks to make sure they're okay before returning them to the coffee shop.

I wouldn't exactly call it cycles, just actively growth during the spring/summer months, and inactive growth during the fall/winter months. They don't really go dormant, they just stop growing more leaves when the weather's cool and there isn't as much sunlight.

A long time ago, I had some small ponytails. I kept watering them, even after I brought them back indoors. They started growing again, long before spring arrived, and those leaves were pale, and limp. They greened up later on, after I moved them back outdoors, but they remained limp and never perked back up. Eventually, newer leaves grew out to cover them up and made them less noticeable. So now I rarely water them when they're indoors. Once a month at the most. Yours should do fine in a low light area. They are excellent at tolerating low light levels when they're not actively growing. Mine don't get any sun at all, just whatever ambient light that lights up my room. I kept one of mine out in my unheated garage last winter. Where it didnt receive any light or water whatsoever, though I wouldn't recommend doing this. When spring rolls around, new leaves will start to emerge from the center. That's when I move mine back outdoors, before they get too long. Just as long as it's warm enough to do so, and not cold and wet.

As for repotting them, they don't mind having their roots disturbed. In fact, I've had to repot one of mine just recently, because the wind kept knocking it over and it lost a lot of its soil. Though, it would be better to wait until next year, when it's actively growing again.

These are remarkably tough plants. I had some small ones that fell out of their pots one spring and pretty much remained bare root, baking in the hot summer sun, and kept on growing. I thought they would die, but they didnt. So I eventually potted them back up again and they didn't care one bit. The only thing that they can't tolerate is cold and wet conditions.

Excellent info. I've been adding light to my main living area, but there are several spots that will work. I'll repot sooner rather than later if the bulbs won't mind, so I'll keep it dry until the mix is ready.

I think gritty is iffy without someone around who understands how it works. My last batch of 5-1-1 supported more of a PWT than I'd like, so this time I'll screen more of the fines out to improve drainage and aeration at the bottom of the pot.

The poor PTP bulbs don't look very good at the moment, mostly because I just bumbled along instead of asking questions when things weren't going well. I'm running on at the mouth as usual, but there's a question in the last paragraph if you don't want to read the whole story.

First, I followed the advice to water once a month over the winter without considering the dry interior air and how little soil is on the poor because I've read so much about the danger of overwatering succulents. After a few months of deliberate neglect I noticed the bulbs were very soft, but they firmed up nicely after a few weeks of soaking the pot for 5-10 minutes every few days. Now I'm watering or soaking every 3-4 days, by which time the bottom of the root ball is just damp, and I'm considering potting up to a slightly bigger pot now instead of waiting until June.

Now the issue is creased leaves, meaning that the leaves 'break' 4-6" from the base instead of curving normally. The leaves were fine when the plant sat at the coffee shop, but by the time I got it to the car to bring it home several of the leaves were creased. I assumed it was mechanical damage, but the leaves aren't brown or dry at the creases the way you'd expect it they'd been squished. A few weeks ago I noticed that the new leaves at the center of the plants were pale and limp and that even more leaves were bent. I know the pale new leaves meant insufficient light, which is easy enough to fix, though I didn't expect the plant to need more light until at least the end of the month.

A gardenweb search brought up some threads about PTP leaves that were bent instead of curving smoothly all the way to their ends. The comments said the problem was probably insufficient light, but the OPs never came back to say whether the suggestions were right. Assuming anyone has made it this far, does it sound like more light will prevent more creased leaves, or could there be another cause?

Are you able to add a pic?

There are soo many people giving soo much bad advice .... it's a shame. Too many get confused, thinking what a plant will tolerate is what it likes. PTs do not like to be rootbound (myth) they do not like to go months or weeks on end in a soil that's completely dry, and they do not thrive on neglect. They're not much different than other succulents in that they experience drought stress when soils are dry.

Low light makes weak leaves - just like it makes weak stems. Also, when your plant gets too dry it loses internal water pressure (turgidity). When this happens, leaves can kink, just like a steel measuring tape kinks if you try to extend it too far. The difference between the tape and the leaf is, the tape is made from spring steel and isn't harmed by mild kinking. Leaves are made of cells that can rupture in the area of the kink, which leaves them unable to return to their same spatial position.

Your plant wants a very fast-draining and well aerated soil. It doesn't like to go dry, but you can wait until it first gets to the dry stage in the winter before watering. In the summer, letting it go dry is simply subjecting it to unnecessary stress that limits growth and vitality.

Al

I was debating on whether or not to bring this up, but I severely neglected one of my spare ponytail palms. My intention was to repot it last fall. I removed it from its old pot and soil and, somewhere along the way, I forgot about it in my garage. It pretty much sat in my garage since last fall, bareroot, with zero sunlight, and zero water. I took this photo just a little while ago. I only bring this up to point out the extreme neglect that it can tolerate. Never would I recommend doing this. I was surprised to find it still alive when I cleaned out my garage. It only lost a few of the older leaves. The rest of the leaves are still green viable, though I wouldn't exactly call them healthy. They're not that bad, just a little dehydrated. The caudex (trunk) has also shrunken down. I plan on repotting it as soon as I get the time. Once it gets the proper care it so desperately needs, it will quickly rebound back to its former glory. Truthfully, it doesn't look that bad, given the circumstances.

We already know how much neglect they tolerate. Ideally, we wouldn't make a habit out of forcing a plant to function at or beyond the limits it was programmed to deal with; this, because of the tremendous amount of potential plants are forced to sacrifice under such stressful extremes. I can probably function blind in one eye, toothless, half deaf, and concussed; but that still wouldn't justify my decision to race motocross without a helmet, face mask, & some protective padding here & there.

Al

Thanks for the replies! Sorry I just wandered off and forgot to check the thread; I need to redevelop my forum etiquette.

Al, that makes perfect sense, and kinked is exactly the right word. For now I pull it out to make sure the bottom of the root ball is almost dry, but I'm sure frequent watering can't substitute for a good open growing medium. As for light, the leaves are so frail that I don't even want to move it to the windowsill on sunny days (night temps still regularly drop into the 40s & the windows are drafty), and my lights are stretched already, so I'll get another fixture this weekend.

BTW, Al, I'm completely sold on light promoting strength now that my dracaena's stems more than doubled in size since they've had more light (the fertilizer surely helped too). I wouldn't be surprised if they also responded to being moved back and forth from the lights to the windows over the past couple months. I wish I'd measured the diameter before all the improvements, but they're almost sturdy compared to their willowy old selves.

Yesterday I spent some quality time with the plant and concluded that it would continue to decline without a helping hand. I'd rather wait to do a full repot until July when I can offer it some strong sunlight for its recovery, so I decided to pot it up into a bit of moist 5-1-1 and gave it a good soak to make sure the roots and mix are equally moist.

The idea is that being surrounded by 5-1-1 will help keep the roots from drying into a hydrophobic mass that needs soaking with every watering while participating some nasty needed aeration, provide a steady supply of fertilizer (I fertilize and flush every time I water), and the larger pot will let me finally get a thin dowel into the roots to monitor moisture levels. Now I'll give it three months of decent living conditions before doing a full repot in July, but I already feel better having done something to improve the poor thing's living conditions.

Meanwhile, I'm considering buying a healthy ponytail palm to repot for Cruzer's coffee shop so he doesn't have to wait a total of 6 or 8 months to have something green on his counter again.

Thanks, everyone, for the advice and encouragement.

I've still been fretful because I started to think my bright idea might not be as shiny as it seemed when I was still a bit impaired from my inner ear issues, which made me quite spacey. Fortunately I stumbled on this tidbit from Al tonight while perusing my notifications:

"If the roots are desperately congested, use a utility knife with a fresh blade to cut 4 vertical slits in the root mass at 90* intervals around the perimeter and an 'X' in the bottom. Set the roots on top of 3 cm or so of soil and fill in around the sides. Keep the soil moist instead of damp."

I've seen this advice before but had simply forgotten all about it. I suspect the PTPs would get through the next few months as is, but what Al described sounds smarter, and a little more work shouldn't cause troublebecause all I've done was to plop the rootball into another pot. Still I'll really try to leave it alone until summer once this is done.

The good news is that even though several leaves at the center of the smallest caudex are limp, the central leaves on all three are greening up after just a week of better light. And fair weather and warmer daytime temps later this week will let me start acclimating my green buddies to direct light, though with lows in the 40s mean it'll be a while before they can stay out overnight.