Ponytail palm how tall

What am I doing wrong? Skip to main content. You are here Gardening » Growing Guides. How to Care for a Ponytail Palm. By The Editors. Christopher Burnett. Choosing Soil and a Pot Use a fast draining soil, such as a cacti and succulent potting mix.

If you have potting soil, sand, and perlite already on hand, you can create your own desert soil mixture: Simply mix 1 part potting soil, 1 part perlite, and 1 part sand. Select a pot that has a hole in the bottom, so that excess water can be drained off. Ponytail palms do not like to sit in moist soil for very long. Use a clay pot if possible; the porous material will absorb some of the water, drying out the soil more quickly a good thing for cacti and succulents.

How to Care for Ponytail Palms Ponytail palms prefer to have as much light as possible, so place the plant in a bright location. Bright, indirect sunlight is best. Keep soil fairly dry. Water from spring through fall, allowing the top inch or two of soil to dry completely before re-watering. During the winter, only water occasionally. To water, soak the soil and allow the excess water to drain through the bottom of the pot into a dish.

Let the pot sit in the dish for several minutes, then dump out any remaining water in the dish. Repotting a Ponytail Palm Ponytail palms will remain small if kept in a small pot. They can go for many years before needing to be repotted. Repotting every other year at the most is all a ponytail palm needs. Moving the plant to a larger pot will give it room to grow in both height and girth. However, older plants may become difficult to manage due to their sheer size and weight if not kept on the smaller size.

Note: Use caution when handling a ponytail palm, as its leaves have tiny serrated edges. Overwatering can result in stem rot. If you withhold watering, the plant may be able to internally remedy the problem. Spider mites occur on the leaves, but can be dealt with by rubbing a cloth of dish soap and water on the stems. Spider mites are evidenced by the presence of spider-like webbing on the plant.

Brown tips on leaves can be a sign of overfertilizing or underwatering, so adjust your husbandry practices appropriately. They can also be a sign that the plant is getting too much direct sunlight and too little water. Propagation Rarely, a ponytail palm may produce an offset—a small baby plant that stems from the base of the adult plant. These can be cut off at the base when they reach at least 4 inches in height and planted in a succulent potting mix. Before planting, allow the cut wound to heal, then apply a bit of rooting hormone available online and in nurseries to encourage the offset to root.

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What's Wrong With My Houseplants? Spider Plants. Clean House with Tropical Plants. Grow Your Own Avocado Tree: Best Indoor Plants for Low Light. Can you trim the leaves if the plant? Hi all, help please We noticed yesterday that pretty much all of the new growth at the top of our beautiful pony palm is falling out.

None of it is brown, none of it is crisp It's all beautiful brand-new growth. A great houseplant for those people looking for easy going and low maintenance. Tip - If you're growing yours in a very small pot with only a little bit of soil, it will dry out quicker and might need more frequent watering.

Ideally, you should aim to water at least a few times a month once a week in the height of Summer if possible and when you do so, make sure it's a thorough watering.

The water reserves will support the plant if you forget to water it from time to time, but don't make this into a habit or you will get a surviving rather than thriving plant. Keep it away from super dry areas, like that found around a working radiator.

The leaf edges and tips of your plant will brown if the humidity is very low , but otherwise humidity isn't overly important. A general all-purpose fertiliser will be fine.

These aren't overly hungry plants and so a light feed once every month in Spring and Summer will be enough. One of our readers, Lynda, has had the larger palm in this photo for over 10 years. The smaller plants are new additions to the family. When it comes to temperature requirements unlike most houseplants the Ponytail Palm is close to being hardy and will accept almost sub-zero temperatures. Exposing your plant to such a low temperature however would surely be by accident and not a regular occurrence right?

If growing well you could be repotting once a year. If conditions are not so good or you want to restrict the size of the plant, only repot every 2 or 3 years. Providing you're feeding once a month or so, these houseplants still do well in small pots and although they have a huge amount going on above the surface, the roots can be fairly compact as shown in the photo below.

When the time comes to repot, no special soil or tips need to be followed. Standard everyday potting soil is fine, just make sure it's fresh and not old or used. From an appearance and cosmetic point of view, you might want to try and go for a tall container to help keep the long leaves from dragging along the ground. Photo by Maja Dumat showing although normally a tall plant, they have small root balls.

Propagating a Ponytail Palm is pretty difficult because it's done typically through the offsets it periodically produces.

The difficultly is that the offsets depend on the parent plant and don't establish their roots very quickly. This means if you separate an offset too early then it will rely on you to get things spot on. None of the Our House Plants. Conditions should then be provided as above. Expect very slow or non-existent growth if light levels are poor or you don't follow the step by step care tips above.

When the conditions are favorable you can look forward to Slow growth! The simple truth about these plants is that they grow slowly.

Great if you don't want it to outgrow the spot for a while, but not so good if you want it to become a tall and majestic plant quickly. Indoors they will grow tall, but this takes a long time see the point above.

Yes, this houseplant does have flowers! Ebooks that help you grow, design and enjoy your landscape! Here's a handy ebook written just for you! The ultimate guide to low-maintenance plants and landscaping! Want to learn more about South Florida planting, watering, fertilizing and dealing with weeds and pests? See our Gardening How-To section for answers! Learn how to get instant curb appeal with fast growing plants and landscaping techniques! Learn more Ponytail Palm Beaucarnia recurvata Cute, whimsical, weird and unique describe the ponytail palm - not actually a palm at all, but a succulent palm-like relative of the yucca.

Enjoy this page? As this plant gets bigger, it may become too difficult to repot. In their native habitat, ponytail palms can reach heights of 30 feet, though when kept as a houseplant, they rarely get taller than 10 feet. Once this size is reached, you will no longer need to repot the plant, but instead, refresh the soil with topdressing.

Ponytail palms are plants that thrive in sunlight, particularly bright, indirect sunlight. However, because these are hardy plants, they can survive in a variety of lighting conditions. For best results, keep your ponytail palm in a place where it will receive bright, full sun during the spring and summer months. During the fall and winter, the plant will tolerate low light conditions. The full-grown size of a ponytail palm depends on whether you are growing the plant indoors or outside.

Indoors, ponytail palms typically grow to about 3 to 4 feet high, with leaves as long as the stem. If you want your indoor ponytail palm to remain small, simply keep it in a small pot.

When grown outdoors, these plants can grow to be about 10 feet tall. If you are purchasing a ponytail palm, be ready to have this plant companion for a long time. In part because of how resilient they are, ponytail palms can live for decades. They are slow growers, however, so be prepared to wait a few years for them to reach their full size. However, with the right type of care, ponytail plants will thrive and remain elegant for years.

In order to propagate a new ponytail palm, you need a pup or offshoot from the main plant. Wait until the pup develops roots and carefully remove it with a sharp knife or pruners. Put it in its own pot and keep the soil somewhat moist to help it further develop its own roots.

Despite their name and appearance, ponytail palms are actually not related to palm trees. In fact, these plants, which come from the eastern part of Mexico, are more closely related to other desert flora like agave and yucca plants. Beautiful palm, healthy! I think packaging could be better for potting plants. The only thing wrong was how it was handled in delivery. It was out of the canister, roots showing and dirt in bottom of plastic sack.

I was afraid it was ruined but we planted it and so far so good. This came beautifully for the long haul. It had to be re-ordered because of the winter conditions. The second one seemed healthy with only a few brown limbs that could be trimmed up. Very lovely to have in the home.