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Sago Palm Bonsai
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Posted by
scottwell 8 (
My Page) on
Mon, Oct 8, 07 at 4:41
| Hi, I recently recived a Sago Palm bonsai tree (one of the cheap ones from a supermarket) and its been doing very well, until it started throwing new leaves. The new shoots are far longer than the previous ones, and the plant just looks off now. I've read since then that it wasn't getting enough sun, so I moved it outside (I live in Phoenix, Arizona so we get plenty of sun) hoping that would help. I've accepted that whats done is done though, so my question is, would it be devistating to the plant if I tried to cut off the new leaves? Could I maybe prune it so that they're closer to the same lenght or something to that effect?
Any advise would be much appreciated!
Scott |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| Well, what will you do with next year's crop, and the one after that? Why not let this one be what it is (eventually today's smaller leaves will be balanced by more large ones), and get a smaller one to start out, and work on bonsai-ing it from the beginning. Though it's not as easy as some others, but do give it lots of light right off the bat and see if it helps. |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| So you're saying that each successive crop is going to be even larger than the previous year's? Or just that each new batch from now on will be about the length of the leaves that just came, rather than the original leaves from when I got the plant? |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| I don't know if the original batch were just immature (and then not allowed to grow longer by being confined in a bonsai pot), but sagos, if left in ideal conditions (e.g. planted in the ground in the right climate) become really huge, so if you want to keep it small (and succeeding leaves) you need to keep it in a smallish pot, keep the roots trimmed as with any bonsai, and make sure it gets a lot of strong sun (a.m. preferred) which will help to keep leaves smaller. I wouldn't cut the original ones, just keep an eye on the new ones (they shouldn't get as long as the ones you're worried about - and if you want to cut those, it's up to you). The thing is, only a couple of leaves grow annually, so you have to be extremely patient, and decide carefully about cutting anything (they could always be cut at some future time after all). |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| Okay, thank you so much, this has really helped me out! I think I'll probably just leave the plant the way it is, and see if I can get used to it for the time being, then see how I feel about it in more like 6 months :) If it never really seems to fit though, and I were to decided to cut them off, I would have to cut the roots down at that same time, right? I've read that you're supposed to trim them both equally, but also that you should only remove at most about 1/3 of the roots. So how many would be appropriate to remove, being as I would be cutting the leaves down by more than half? |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| No don't cut roots just hoping to match top growth. In the first place, you'd need a huge amount of experience to know which were the right ones (or not) as it does matter (you can cut 3/4 of them, but if you don't get the right ones, you've wasted your time), plus sagos don't like you fussing with their roots any more than absolutely necessary, plus it's somewhat of a myth that you must always match top growth and roots every time. Obviously a great discrepancy needs addressing, but many plants have tiny root growth and a large head of foliage with no trouble at all. |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| I have a sago growing in my room right now. Each successive leaf will be bigger. If it only had a small amount of leaves, this change will be extremely noticeable. As the more leaves form, older leaves may fall. I believe that I read once 34 leaves exactly have formed, the sago palm will begin to form a trunk. Thankfully, because sago is eaten as a form of starch (the inside of the trunk), it is considered a food crop and therefore there is a lot of information on it online. |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| Does anyone know the cold zone for a sago bonsai palm tree? Mine stopped blooming for now and I thought if I put it outside it might get a jumpstart on new growth. (I did this last year when it was growing and it grew even more but it was warmer.) Problem is it's still in the 50's in NYC. Is it still too cold? |
RE: Sago Palm Bonsai
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| Hi, I wouldn't put anything tropical out now. It's quite possible that on any given night up until May the temperature at some point could drop to 40, and a frost form on plants, and unless they have only unopened buds (never mind being tropical), they could easily be killed. Plus I'm not sure why you think suddenly shocking your indoor tree by going outdoors in the cold now will jumpstart anything. |
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