Germination success! transplanting Trachycarpus Palm tree seedlings in pots

Following on from our recent video showing how we picked and sowed seeds / berries of Trachycarpus Forunei (Chusan Palm, Windmill palm, Hemp palm) we now have a big crop of young seedlings which started appearing about 10 weeks after sowing the seeds and now, 5 months after sowing, we have around 200 hundred strong looking seedlings to plant into small pots to help them get stronger over autumn / winter and next spring.
In this video Roger
- gently lifts the seedlings out of the compost and separates them ready for potting.
- Mixes some potting compost using multipurpose compost and adding some gritty sand to help with drainage to help prevent the roots getting too wet.
- Fills the pot with compost and plants in the seedlings
and explains the processes and plans for how he intends to give the palm tree seedlings the best chance to thrive

[@riccardofabbri1110]

The thing you said about landscaping even years after death is really cool, palm trees are beautiful for that reason too, there is a tunisian saying... "Who plants dates doesn't harvest dates".

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi Riccardo, thanks for your comment - love that saying from Tunisia … have you read the book called ‘The man who planted trees’? It’s only short, but a wonderful story

[@riccardofabbri1110]

@@rogthegardener1 Yes I did! Absolutely amazing story, I would really like to replicate what he did, on a smaller scale of course!

[@juliejames8363]

I have just planted 11 of these that I brought , oh my goodness they take a long time to grow ,,I'm not fussed about 6ft hight ect ,, but how long do they take for a reasonable size plant ,,

[@rogthegardener1]

@@juliejames8363 true! These are not quick growing .. maybe a few inches per year, a bit more when they are older my large ones in our garden are probably about 6 inches per year now … how big are yours?

[@juliejames8363]

@@rogthegardener1 oh my goodness mine are in there first year so single stem at the moment,, thank you for replying x

[@haroldbetterson1877]

Wow Roger 🤩

[@rogthegardener1]

Yes - I was rather chuffed!

[@CoderTronics]

Thanks for the videos on these palms

[@rogthegardener1]

You’re very welcome, more palm video’s to come as they need potting up again in a week or two… are you growing palms yourself?

[@palmlifeuk3553]

Hi Roger, I started doing this around 2 years ago and now my 1st batch have grown enough to pot on I've ordered even more seedings to start again! I would definitely recommend the deep square palm seedling pots. They stop the roots spiraling and make them grow straight down. 👍🏻

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi, Many thanks for this, good tip - if you want some of our seedlings you would be very welcome!?

[@palmlifeuk3553]

@@rogthegardener1 thanks Roger. I'll see how I cope with my new batch and if I have room I'll be in touch. Thanks again!

[@bone0826]

Amazing! how are they doing? We have two of the same palm trees both about 15 years old, the one two months ago, unfortunately, saw a catastrophe, im not happy,, anyway it got burnt in a fire v upsetting nothing left of it until now!!! it has a new fan coming through with two shoots with seeds OMG! so happy!!! Why would this be? Also if i could home the new babes how long would i need to wait? All green at the moment! Cheers Lee

[@rogthegardener1]

Ours are doing well, exposed to some quite cold temperatures over winter but all ok - not much new growth so have fed them a couple of times, they are slow growing so not expecting much for a year or two! Sorry to hear about the fire etc - hope all is ok now, and no one hurt? Sometimes plants produce flowers / seeds in response to any form of stress (such as a fire!) in order to 'continue the species under threat'

[@jonathanmorgan3034]

Hey I like your channel I’m still stuck on growing the cordyline from seed I keep failing ! But I have successfully grew 200 trachycarpus palm an also I have planted 500 more seeds, I have 400 2-3 year old Trachy an fortunia they are growing great, was wondering if you could possibly do another cordyline vid this year cheers Jon 👍👍👍

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi Jonathon - thanks for getting in touch, well done for succeeding with Trachycarpus! Strange that you have so far struggled with Cordylines ... can you tell me what you are currently doing and when to raise Cordylines

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi Jonathan- just to let you know that now is a good time to sow Cordyline seeds (here in the uk anyway) I uploaded a couple of videos to my channel a year or two back- hope you succeed soon … keep us posted, thanks

[@user-qw5cn9gq3t]

How are they doing

[@rogthegardener1]

They are doing well, all alive but slow growing may need to pot them up into larger pots now

[@LachyzWT]

new update video coming now please?

[@rogthegardener1]

Yes - thank you for reminding me!

[@user-xx8bj3so1e]

Спасибо дякую вам...

[@rogthegardener1]

Будь ласка!

[@rogthegardener1]

Будьте здорові

[@nickbouwhuis4887]

Hi Roger, I have about 50 seedlings in the same stage as in this video. I just put them outside in a greenhouse with direct sunlight on it. My question is can they handle the hot sun at this stage of growth? Or is it better to put them in a shady part of the garden? Thanks in advance!

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi, we moved ours outside in full sun just in case they got scorched and they have been outside ever since ... I suppose where you live a nd how hot is gets in the greenhouse .. we may well move ours back inside under cover in autumn through until spring to encourage some late and early new growth .. they are very slow growing initially Hope this helps, keep us posted please with your progress., thanks

[@julianschmahl8267]

I have about 50 seedlings sprouting within a 15 cm radius of eachother. Do I need to transplant them to make their survival viable? Also are they strong enough with just one leaf? Any tips for soil?

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi many thanks for your comment, and well done for getting good germination. I need to ask a couple of questions to try to give you as much help as possible - am I right in thinking that at the moment you have all the plants 'together' in the ground or a big tray and you are thinking about transplanting them into pots with just one plant per pot? - Do you know if it is exactly the same variety of palm as in my video? - Where are you living ... in the UK? Hope to hear from you soon Roger

[@julianschmahl8267]

@@rogthegardener1 Hi Roger they are all 100% Trachycarpus Fortunei because I also have a female tree that regularly is leaving seeds. I decided to plant them for once last year and to my surprise they ALL have sprouted. They look exactly the same size and appearance as your seedlings from the video right now. I would say the distance between them is a little less as in the video as they are really overlapping eachother. At this point they still look really healthy though and vibrant green. I am from the Netherlands so our climate is comparable. I wanted to try and grow 1 or 2 in my garden and cover them with burlap for the winter and have the rest transplanted to pots. What is your advice? I think transplantation is absolutely necessary at this point considering the lack of spacing?

[@rogthegardener1]

@@julianschmahl8267 ah that’s great thanks for the information 👍 We had a great time visiting the Keukenhof gardens this April 😀🌷 So yes I would be tempted to pot them up asap, they may not grow much more this year as they will putting energy into root growth. We have John innes compost over here in the UK, which has soil mixed into it rather than just peat/organic matter … are you able to mix some soil based compost with some sand/grit and some ‘normal compost’? The sand grit will add some drainage which they might enjoy

[@rogthegardener1]

I would watch the winter weather as you are quite exposed to those cold easterly winds…we left ours outside as long as possible and when temperatures went below freezing popped them into a greenhouse for a month or two. Although the mature trees can cope with very cold temperatures, young seedings are more vulnerable … does that all make sense?

[@julianschmahl8267]

@@rogthegardener1 Ah how nice! Great to know you've already visited us once before and the Keukenhof is amazing! You're welcome to come by again! Thanks for the advice.. I will pass by a garden centre and see if I can get some soil you are talking about.

[@1rrobb]

Dear Roger, during our holiday in Greece, Karpathos, I found black slights hairy seeds nearby a palmtree. Do happen to know what kind that could be? If applicable I would like to sow them here in the Netherlands. Any idea if that will succeed? Thank you in advance!

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi, thanks for getting in touch, I would suggest experimenting with just a few seeds at a time, so that if it doesn’t work first time you will still have seeds left to try again… might be worth uploading some pictures of the seeds to a palm tree forum online… it’s a shame you can’t upload them to us / my channel on KZbin… you could email me a picture if you wish it’s [e-mail] Thanks Please keep us updated with your progress

[@tomedwards5132]

Wondered what these seedlings look like now?

[@rogthegardener1]

I can tell you they do not look much different to how they were last year in the video. They were outside most if not all of the winter, they are notoriously slow growing especially when young .. however they will have been putting on root growth so now I am expecting some new leaves and can see a few new green shots starting, I have given them a couple of liquid feeds recently so hopefully we will see some new growth … I’ll put a picture on the community section of my channel in a month or so if there some good news!

[@jameshowarth5547]

How are your trachys getting on Roger 🌴

[@rogthegardener1]

They are looking strong thanks - quite small still but several new leaves .. got think long term with young Trachys methinks! 😃

[@superhoover-]

any updates on these please?

[@rogthegardener1]

Hi Thanks for your question .. they are doing fine, new leaves but notoriously slow growing especially when young 🙂 Ill try to get a picture uploaded to the community area of my channel tomorrow

[@superhoover-]

@@rogthegardener1 thank you sir

[@geoffisaac3511]

I have hundreds on my palm tree this year which are green at the moment, do I wait until they go plum colour before l pick them? . Did you do that experiment with the cuttings on the wisteria I mentioned to you? Thanks Roger for your excellent videos . Geoff down Kidwelly

[@rogthegardener1]

Hiya, ‘Kidwelly Geoff’ !😀 I tend to leave any palm seeds until they are really ripe (it seems to work on our Cordylines and trachycarpus) so I didn’t pick the berries from last year’s flowers until this spring by which time they were black - as you will see in a video on my channel earlier this year. Thanks for the reminder re the wisteria cuttings, I had forgotten but could still give it a try …. Have you successfully grown them from cuttings?

[@robertkost377]

Here in the States many Trachycapus palms are grown on both coasts. My well established palms in the northern part of South Carolina suffered a small amount of leaf damage at 7 degrees F last Winter (a very unusual cold wave for us). We have many summer days above 90 degrees as well but the palms keep chugging along!